{"id":209338,"date":"2005-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T19:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=209338"},"modified":"2019-03-12T19:44:30","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T19:44:30","slug":"auto-insert-209338","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-209338\/","title":{"rendered":"USG briefing\/Despatch of team to Beirut &#8211; Noon Briefing &#8211; Spokesman&#8217;s Office (excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\n<hr height=\"5px\" \/>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:14pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN&#39;S NOON BRIEFING<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>BY FRED ECKHARD<br \/>\nSPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>Tuesday, 22 February, 2005<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>SECURITY COUNCIL TO RECEIVE BRIEFING ON MIDDLE EAST <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">At 3:00 p.m. today, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, will brief the Security Council on the Middle East, in an open meeting. That meeting will be followed by consultations, also on the Middle East.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:11px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>U.N. TEAM EXPECTED TO DEPLOY TO BEIRUT<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>SHORTLY TO REPORT ON DEATH OF RAFIC HARIRI <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">\n<li style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Late on Friday afternoon, it was announced that the Secretary-General <\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">would be <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unispal.un.org\/pdfs\/E76490312F8ABA6185256FB000537D1F.pdf\" style=\"color:#0000ff;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">sending a team<\/a><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;to Beirut pursuant to the&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/News\/Press\/docs\/2005\/sc8310.doc.htm\" style=\"color:#0000ff;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><u>request<\/u><\/a><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;of the Security Council <\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">that he urgently report on the circumstances, causes and consequences of the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.&#160;<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The team will be led by Peter Fitzgerald, a Deputy Police Commissioner of the Irish national police force, known as Garda S&#237;och&#225;na. It will consist of staff with relevant expertise.&#160;\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">The team will make contact with Lebanese officials and others to gather such information as necessary for the Secretary-General to report to the Council in a timely manner.&#160;\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Over the weekend, the UN received a letter from the Lebanese authorities pledging its support for the work of the UN team. &#160;The team is expected to deploy to Beirut very shortly.&#160;\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Asked about a timeline for the Lebanon team&#8217;s work, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General hopes the team can report back to him quickly, and they are going to keep that accelerated timetable in mind as they begin their work.\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:11pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">Asked whether the team can judge whether the killing was a political assassination, the Spokesman said the team would not go in with any preconceived notion. They would start their work in Lebanon and, if they need to go to other countries, they would do so.&#160; Fitzgerald, he said, is a very distinguished police commissioner who has worked for a number of UN missions. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial, san-serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General<br \/>\nÂ鶹APP, S-378<br \/>\nNew York, NY 10017<br \/>\nTel. 212-963-7162 &#8211;<strong>&nbsp;press\/media only<\/strong><br \/>\nFax. 212-963-7055<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>All other inquiries to be addressed to (212) 963-4475 or by e-mail to: inquiries@un.org<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN&#39;S NOON BRIEFING BY FRED ECKHARD SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK Tuesday, 22 February, 2005 &#8230; SECURITY COUNCIL TO RECEIVE BRIEFING ON MIDDLE EAST At 3:00 p.m. today, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, will brief the Security Council on the Middle East, in an open meeting. That <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-209338\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[5352,2165],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1749,1797,1965],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-209338","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-news-service","document-subject-palestine-question","document-subject-peace-process","document-subject-situation-in-lebanon","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/209338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/209338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=209338"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=209338"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=209338"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=209338"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=209338"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=209338"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=209338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}