Palestine, Lebanon & other topics - Daily Press Briefing

No, I was assaulted. Yeah, no, when it gets to be this hot, I need to have less hair. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. The Secretary-General is currently on his way to Cyprus, where he will meet with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, as well as other stakeholders. He will discuss efforts to advance the peace process and support stability on the island. including through the work of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus. The Secretary-General is expected to return to New York on Wednesday. Earlier today, before departing for Cyprus, the Secretary-General met in Amman with Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ayman Safadi. They discussed regional developments. The Secretary-General had spent the previous 2 days in Syria, Before departing Syria, the Secretary-General held a press conference during which he welcomed recent steps to ease sanctions on Syria and create new opportunities for economic recovery. He stressed, however, that all remaining sanctions should be lifted without delay and emphasized that Syria's recovery will also require sustained political support, economic engagement and practical assistance from the international community. During his meetings with President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Assad al-Sheibani and other officials, the Secretary-General welcomed the progress achieved in Syria's political transition and underscored the importance of sustaining this momentum through inclusive participation, with a view to building a peaceful, stable and prosperous Syria for all Syrians. He reaffirmed the commitment of the United Nations to support the Syrian people and work in close partnership with the Syrian authorities during this important period of transition. In Damascus, the Secretary-General met with women's organizations, civil society representatives, and members of Syria's diverse communities. He also met with representatives of the National Transitional Justice Commission, the Missing Persons Commission, the Women's Peace and Security Commission, the Electoral Commission, and the Speaker of Parliament. In all his meetings, the Secretary-General reaffirmed that we stand ready to assist all efforts to promote accountability, transitional justice, human rights, and reconciliation, build confidence among communities, and ensure the meaningful participation of all Syrians— women and men, young people, and all components of Syria's remarkable and diverse society. On Saturday, the Secretary-General visited Saydnaya Prison. He said that the site stands as a stark reminder of the horrendous oppression under the previous Syrian regime. Although the Secretary-General had planned to visit the UN Disengagement Observer Force, scheduling constraints prevented that visit from taking place. Instead, he met in Damascus with the UNDOF Force Commander, Major General Anita Azma, as well as the Governor of Quneitra and representatives of local communities. The Secretary-General is deeply concerned at the recent announcement by the Israeli authorities of a series of measures in response to recent attacks. Including reports of an accelerated process to legalize farm outposts and establish new ones in the occupied West Bank. The Secretary-General reiterates that all settlements, including outposts, have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation of international law. Such settlements remain a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace. Meanwhile, our colleagues with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs expressed their deep alarm concerning the escalation of violence across the West Bank in recent days. Since Thursday, at least 8 Palestinians, including 1 child, as well as 2 Israelis have been killed. Many others have been injured. Homes, mosques, trees, and agricultural structures have been set on fire or otherwise vandalized, and in some cases destroyed. At least 10 Palestinian families have been displaced in the course of the latest violence. In parallel, Israeli forces have tightened their restrictions on Palestinian movements and access across many areas of the West Bank, preventing thousands of people from reaching essential services such as emergency medical care and the sources of their livelihoods. Since the beginning of this year, OCHA has documented more than 1,330 incidents involving Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties, property damage, or both. As of Saturday, 77 Palestinians, including 18 children, have been killed by Israeli forces or Israeli settlers in 2026. During the same period, 3 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians. The humanitarian community continues to call for the urgent protection of civilians and strict respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law. perpetrators must be held to account. Over the weekend, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon continues to observe Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, predominantly involving unmanned aerial vehicles. On Friday, peacekeepers observed an airstrike in the vicinity of Al-Qusayr in Sector East, which impacted approximately 700 metres from a UN position. Also on Friday, peacekeepers observed 3 aerial interceptions in the sky above an Israel Defense Forces position south of the Blue Line, followed by 2 Iron Dome interceptions outside the area of operations. In both instances, the point of origin for the intercepted targets could not be determined. On Saturday, peacekeepers observed an airstrike followed by a large explosion in the vicinity of Nabatiyeh, outside the area of operations, which was accompanied by 2 air-to-ground strike detonations. delivered by a fighter jet operating in the area. Peacekeepers also continue to observe sustained IDF ground activity throughout the mission's area of operations. Throughout the weekend, UNIFIL peacekeepers recorded indirect fire activity across both sectors and areas north of the Litani River. This includes 47 trajectories on Friday, 77 trajectories on Saturday, and 52 trajectories on Sunday. UNIFIL peacekeepers continued to discover unexploded ordnance in the mission's area of operations, which were marked and secured for disposal. Peacekeepers also faced several restrictions and impediments to freedom of movement across the area of operations. This morning, the Security Council received a briefing on Ukraine from Keiko Goto, the Director for the Europe and Central Asia Division at the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs. She noted that as Ukraine has entered a new harvest season, the escalation of Russian attacks on ports and cargo ships in recent weeks raises renewed alarm about the wider regional and global impacts of this war. At the same time, Ms. Goto pointed out that Ukraine has expanded attacks against Russian and Russian-linked maritime logistics, including oil tankers. She said that the far-reaching impact of the hostilities on global food security underscore once again the urgent need for renewed diplomatic efforts. Also briefing Council members, Indrika Ratwate, the Acting Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, warned that civilians continue to be killed and injured as homes, energy and water systems, UN warehouses and humanitarian facilities come under attack. He also expressed concern over reports of civilian harm in the Russian Federation, including reported attacks on on logistics centres in the Moscow and Tambov regions that have claimed civilian lives, while noting that the United Nations cannot independently verify these reports. Both remarks have been shared with you. Turning to Sudan, our colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warn that ongoing conflict, displacement and disease outbreaks continue to drive humanitarian needs across the country. In the Darfur region, our partners on the ground report that insecurity This year's humanitarian appeal for Sudan is about 40% funded, with $1.1 billion received against the nearly $2.9 billion required. Turning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, our colleagues at OCHA tell us that the Ebola outbreak continues to expand, with rising numbers of cases and deaths putting ever more pressure on health services and our efforts to respond. As of July 25th, National health authorities had reported 3,200 confirmed Ebola cases across Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Hautewele, and Tshopo provinces. More than 100 new confirmed cases have been reported for the second consecutive day. We, along with our partners, continue to support the authorities on surveillance, contact tracing, laboratory testing, and patient care. The World Food Programme has provided more than 140,000 hot meals and food to over 23,000 patients, contacts, and vulnerable people impacted by the outbreak in Enturi, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces. UNICEF and our partners have also carried out more than 27,000 household visits to support the identification and follow-up of suspected cases in affected communities. Meanwhile, preparedness efforts are underway beyond the provinces impacted by Ebola. Today, the World Health Organization launched training for hygiene specialists at the General Reference Hospital in the province of Baswele to reduce the risk of further spread. We and our partners remain committed to supporting the authorities' response. Continued international support is critical to expanding treatment capacity, sustaining response operations, and containing the outbreak. Turning to Rwanda, where we, along with our humanitarian partners, are continuing to support government-led efforts to strengthen Ebola preparedness. Our colleagues from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tell us that this month our partners trained health workers on infection prevention and control, case detection, and reporting. Our partners have also prepositioned personal protective equipment, testing supplies, diagnostic tools, water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies in high-risk areas. Surveillance efforts also continue, including the screening of travelers at key points of entry into the country. And the expansion of environmental and wastewater surveillance. Risk communication and community engagement activities continue through radio campaigns as well as the distribution of information materials. As we have mentioned before, $2 million has been allocated from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to strengthen outbreak preparedness in high-risk districts. The General Cooperation Meeting between the Secretariats of the United Nations and and the League of Arab States and their specialized bodies is taking place at the United Nations Office at Geneva from today until Wednesday. The meeting is co-chaired by Ambassador Khaled Manslawi, League of Arab States Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the International Political Affairs Sector, and Khaled Khiari, UN Assistant Secretary-General in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations. High-level representatives from around 40 UN and LAS agencies, funds and programs are participating in the meeting. In his opening comments, Mr. Kyari has stressed that cooperation and joint action are force multipliers that enable both the United Nations and the League of Arab States to have a far greater impact than either organization could have alone, for the benefit of the people they serve. And today, the UN Refugee Agency announced the appointment of South Sudanese Olympian and professional basketball player Wenyen Gabriel as its newest Goodwill Ambassador. Born in Khartoum to parents who had fled the civil war in Southern Sudan, Gabriel and his family fled to Egypt as refugees before being resettled to the United States when he was 2 years old. He later went on to play in the NBA and represented South Sudan in the 2024 Olympics. Now 29, Gabriel has supported refugees and UNHCR since 2022, when he first returned to South Sudan to witness the humanitarian situation firsthand. The appointment comes as UNHCR marks the 75th anniversary of the Refugee Convention tomorrow. That's it for me. Are there any questions? Yes, Saeed.

Yeah, thank you, Farhan. Good to see you.

Nice to see you.

Good to see you again. You mentioned about the West Bank The occupied West Bank and settler violence and so on. I want to ask you a quick question, yes or no, whatever. Do you have— does the UN have the capacity or the power to designate a certain group as a terrorist group?

The United Nations Secretariat does not make designations of terrorism. Those designations have been made in different lists by the Security Council.

Okay, so Would there be, let's say, should we expect in the near future that the so-called settler violence or the settlers, they're really a government-supported militia, designate them as terrorists?

That would really be up to the members of the Security Council to determine. I don't frankly know whether they would do that. They don't have an overall list of terrorist groups. They have, as you know, the list of entity is affiliated with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other sorts of groups.

Would there be such an effort, or is there a mechanism where the Secretariat can actually make a recommendation?

We can't make a designation of terrorist entities on our own. Different member states do that, and like I said, the Security Council does that, but we don't have the capacity to make those determinations as the Secretary-General.

Okay. One quick question on the Board of Peace. Yesterday, the Israeli government said they will allow the international force to go into Gaza. Are you involved with that in any way, shape, or form?

No.

The UN's responsibilities under the Board of Peace have been primarily humanitarian, and we're carrying that out.

Okay, so government that want to send in forces like Morocco or other places, they don't need to coordinate with, with the United Nations. Who do they coordinate with?

They coordinate with the guarantors of the Board of Peace. That includes their, their own, of course, officials, including Nikolai Mladenov, but it also includes the US government and others who have been supporting the creation of the Board of Peace.

Thank you.

Yes, Gabriel.

Thank you, Farhan. As you know, on Friday afternoon, the General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor to approve the reappointment of Volker Türk as the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights. The vote was 144 to 10, with 13 abstentions. Does the Secretary-General have any comment about Volker Türk's overwhelming reappointment?

Well, we certainly welcome the decision taken by member states. That, of course, was in their purview. The Secretary-General, as you know, had communicated the possibility of this extension to the regional groups of member states in a transparent process, and they have now responded.

Since— over the past 48 hours since that transpired on Friday, there's been some controversy, and since I thought I'd give you a chance to respond if you so desire. During that General Assembly vote, the US representative said that the UN human rights system has been losing credibility for decades. Those were his words. And then on Saturday, the French mission to the UN in Geneva posted a comment on social media social media that caused more, for lack of a better word, controversy. And then this morning, the US representative in the meeting on Ukraine walked out of the meeting when the French spoke. I'm going back and forth here, but this is all related to Volker Türk's reappointment that has caused some controversy and some tension between 2 P5 members. I'll leave it at that. Does the Secretary-General choose to respond or give some opinion on that?

I don't think we'd get involved in dealing with the different comments made by respective member states. Obviously, they're entitled to their opinions. Obviously, once the member states of this organization take a decision through the General Assembly, we hope and expect that all member states will respect that decision. Abdul Hamid.

Thank you, Farhan. Does the SG see the bigger picture of what the Israelis are doing both in Gaza and the West Bank? They're choking the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, in 30% of Gaza, and the settlers with the security forces are really waging almost a genocidal war in the West Bank. in every corner. It's not only an attack by a group of settlers to this— on this village or that, but it's mostly comprehensive attack together with what they're doing in Jerusalem. Does he see that these are coordinated efforts to end the so-called two-state solution?

Well, as I said earlier, one of the points that the Secretary-General wants to make clear is that all settlements, including outposts, have no legal validity, and they constitute a flagrant violation of international law. And to repeat, such settlements remain a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace, and those remain our priorities.

Thank you, Farhan. A question on Secretary-General's visit to Syria. I'm sorry I came here late. I don't know if you put out a statement, a readout of that, of his meetings. But on the day, on Friday last week, Stefan said he would meet with a wide variety of Syrian voices, as wide as possible, he said. I wonder if he met the representatives of the Kurdish groups, namely the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazlum Abdi, who was in talks with Mr. al-Assad, President al-Assad, on this broader Syrian government to, you know, on the progress forward?

He did not meet with the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces, but he did meet with a diverse range of the ethnic groups of Syria while he was there. And I would refer you also to his remarks made to the press where he talked about his various meetings.

But like, Mazlum Hadi, General Hadi, is the most important arguably, I mean, the most important Kurdish figure in Syria. Why not meet him? Why not go to Rojava?

There were scheduling constraints, so he wasn't able to travel as widely throughout the country. He basically went to Damascus, and then after that he returned yesterday to Jordan. He tried to meet with different representatives of officials as best as he could while he was in Damascus.

Are you saying— sorry, just one last follow-up— are you saying he tried to meet General Abdi but of scheduling conflicting schedules, he couldn't?

Well, he wasn't able to make all the meetings that he would have had his stay been longer, but he tried, like I said, to meet as diverse a group of Syrians as he could. Linda.

Thank you, Farhan. Apropos of the Human Rights Commissioner, you mentioned that the SG gave notice to the regional groups that he planned to renew, you know, to recommend renewal I was just wondering how much notice was actually given. Do you know how much notice was given to regional groups? This is—

this was a transparent process that had been underway for some time.

Like a month or, you know?

I don't know the precise timeframe, but certainly it went well ahead of the vote that took place on Friday.

And my other question is, Um, was there any consideration of the Secretary-General, perhaps since he was going to be in the region, Syria and Jordan, that he might try to visit with the Israelis given their less than great relationship?

Uh, there's no, there's no travel envisioned there on this particular trip. Now he's heading to Cyprus, and that— and from Cyprus he'll come back here. Okay, Abdul Hamid.

My question about Cuba. A spokesperson from the Cuban government said, we will defend our country. Do you see that the tension is getting higher for a possible U.S. invasion of Cuba?

Well, I don't want to speculate on, on what the future holds. I would like to point out that the Secretary-General in fact met earlier this month with the Foreign Minister of Cuba, and, and they discussed the efforts by the UN system to support the Cuban people and, and deal with the humanitarian situation that's been aggravated by the recent severe fuel shortages. So we're continuing to do what we can to help the situation there. All right, uh, yes please, Sinan.

Thank you, Farhan. Quick follow-up to Namo's question. I read Secretary-General's press release from Syria. He said he met diverse communities and he named Alawites from coastal area, he named some people from South Syria, but I didn't see anything from Northeast Syria, and I was wondering why he didn't name anything, why he didn't name he met any Kurdish

Like I said, his schedule was cut short a bit, and he had returned to Jordan yesterday rather than today, so he wasn't able to make as wide a series of meetings.

He did talk about the situation in northeastern Syria with his interlocutors, and I'd refer you to the press remarks he made yesterday about that.

Thank you.

Quick follow-up. I did follow up with the remark. There was a question they were asking, how is the integration going with northeast Syria? He just said he's kind of impressed. I mean, it's a good progress, but he didn't meet anyone from northeast Syria while he's meeting people from other parts of Syria. That's my question. I'm just trying to understand why it's so difficult for him to make a statement specifically about that.

Yes.

Well, like I said, he did deal with the issue of the Northeast. He dealt with the issue of the SDF. And as I explained to Namo as well, his trip was a bit shortened, so he wasn't able to go about the entire program of meetings that he would otherwise have tried. Yes, in the back.

Yeah, hi, Faryon.

Mitch, Feature Story News.

You would have seen that there's a new entrant in the race for Secretary-General in the last couple of days. It's possibly a question for the Security Council, but are you aware if this will delay the straw polling for a chance for informal dialogue to take place?

I believe my General Assembly colleague, Lanise, will let you know about this, but as far as I'm aware, the straw polling is to proceed on Friday. If there's any changes, she'll let you know.

Bisan?

Thank you.

Just wanted to ask you just a little bit more specifically on, like, the situation in Nablus, given that there was this Women were forced to give birth in an ambulance. I know you mentioned the situation in the West Bank, but do you have anything more specific on Nablus and the humanitarian situation there?

Well, just what I said at the start of this briefing about our concerns about the violence there. But certainly, as we made clear last Friday as well, we were very concerned about the violence happening, and we've called for accountability for all the various actions that have happened in Nablus and the West Bank over the recent days. All right. Have a good afternoon, everyone.