{"id":238293,"date":"2020-08-14T20:30:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T00:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=238293"},"modified":"2020-08-17T20:30:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T00:30:52","slug":"agreement-between-uae-and-israel-14-aug-2020-daily-press-briefing-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/agreement-between-uae-and-israel-14-aug-2020-daily-press-briefing-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"Agreement Between UAE and Israel \u2013 14 Aug. 2020 Daily Press Briefing \u2013 (Excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
14 AUGUST 2020<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

**Israel and United Arab Emirates<\/u><\/p>\n

In a statement we issued yesterday on the joint statement issued by the US President Donald J. Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, [suspending] Israeli annexation plans over parts of the occupied West Bank \u2014 this is something the Secretary-General has consistently called for.\u00a0 Annexation would effectively close the door for a renewal of negotiations and destroy the prospect of a viable Palestinian State and the two-State solution.\u00a0 The Secretary-General\u00a0welcomes this agreement and hopes it will create an opportunity<\/a>\u00a0for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to re-engage in meaningful negotiations that will realize a two-State solution in line with relevant UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.<\/p>\n

Peace in the Middle East is more important than ever as the region confronts the grave threats posed by COVID-19 and radicalization.\u00a0 The Secretary-General will continue to work with all sides to open further possibilities for dialogue, peace and stability.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

**Questions and Answers<\/u><\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Ibtisam, please, go ahead, then Alan.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 So, I want to go back to the statement that you read about the United Arab Emirates and Israel agreement.\u00a0 So, you are welcoming\u2026 in your statement, you welcome the claim of suspending annexation when, as a matter of fact, Netanyahu himself said that the full plan is still on the table.\u00a0 And\u2026 but, more importantly, facts on the ground show that confiscation of Palestinian land, building of settlements, etc., is just going nonstop.<\/p>\n

So, my question to you is, why are you supporting the occupation, if you want, and issuing such a statement and ignoring the facts on the ground?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Listen, I think your\u2026 let me just put it this way.\u00a0 I don\u2019t agree with the logic that you infer from our statement.\u00a0 We are welcoming what was said that\u2026 the paper that was issued jointly by the three leaders yesterday.<\/p>\n

For us, the suspension of an annexation is very important and something that we\u2019ve consistently called for.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think anyone can accuse the Secretary\u2011General of supporting the occupation.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s him, whether it\u2019s Mr.\u00a0[Nickolay] Mladenov, other UN\u2026 or other UN officials have consistently spoken out against annexation, unilateral moves, anything that we see that puts in jeopardy the two\u2011State solution and a viable Palestinian State.<\/p>\n

So, I don\u2019t see\u2026 I don\u2019t think we can be accused of supporting the occupation.\u00a0 What we are supporting is an opportunity that we hope will create\u2026 an opportunity for Israelis and Palestinian leaders to re\u2011engage in meaningful negotiations.\u00a0 I mean, this has been the Secretary\u2011General\u2019s message for quite some time, during his last briefing to the Council, Mr.\u00a0Mladenov\u2019s last briefing to the Council.<\/p>\n

This was announced yesterday.\u00a0 Obviously, we have to see about the implementation, but I think it\u2019s important that all three parties focus on the implementation as outlined in the statement.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 I have a follow\u2011up.\u00a0 Of course, I mean, you are talking about suspending, but as I said, as a matter of fact, on the ground, even your own reports by OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), in the last two weeks, at least, there were 100\u00a0Palestinians who were injured during demonstrations, peaceful demonstrations, in Turmus Ayya, a village near Ramallah, where people were demonstrating against land confiscation and settlements building.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t hear from your\u2026 there are UN reports from the different organizations about these issues and other issues, but from your office, from the Secretary\u2011General, we don\u2019t hear any condemnations for these issues.<\/p>\n

And your statement talks about suspending, where, as a matter of fact, there is no suspending on the ground.\u00a0 The facts on the ground show that the Israelis are doing whatever they want to do and continuing with that.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We will continue\u2026<\/p>\n

Correspondent<\/u>:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Sorry.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Sorry.\u00a0 No, I didn\u2019t mean to interrupt.<\/p>\n

Correspondent<\/u>:\u00a0 I\u2019m done.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 We will continue, through our regular reporting mechanisms, whether it\u2019s OCHA, Mr.\u00a0Mladenov, to report the facts as we see them on the ground, and we will continue to speak out against violations as we see them.\u00a0 That\u2026 and our position has not changed.<\/p>\n

We see this statement as an opportunity.\u00a0 Let\u2019s\u2026 we look forward to its implementation.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 AUGUST 2020 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. \/… **Israel and United Arab Emirates In a statement we issued yesterday on the joint statement issued by the US President Donald J. Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[897,1593,5684,2553],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[5352,6169],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2849,1797,1905,2073],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-238293","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-israel","country-palestine-state-of","country-united-arab-republic","country-united-states-of-america","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-subject-annexation","document-subject-peace-process","document-subject-peace-proposals-and-efforts","document-subject-peace-building","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/238293","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\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/238293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=238293"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=238293"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=238293"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=238293"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=238293"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=238293"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=238293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}