Transcripts For ALJAZ Miroslav Lajcak 20180122 : vimarsana.c

ALJAZ Miroslav Lajcak January 22, 2018

Former football star george weah has been sworn in various new president the fifty one year old won a landslide in a runoff vote in december against the outgoing Vice President joseph because those were the headlines talked to al jazeera is that because it is next. On counting the cost why the jurys still out on tampa now makes despite wall streets delight we delve into chinas better than expected growth story and count the past the negative brand populace of the. Counting the cost at this time on aljazeera. In the world is all good to be. Seen. With wars and conflicts continue to rage and crises after crises threatening the safety and well being of millions of people around the world the question is who and how can we bring an end to all this suffering now for years the responsibility has always been placed on the United Nations but its often failed to end these crises in conflicts because of the very nature of the organization and how it is set up on the one hand you have the General Assembly. Which is he does the waltz conscience but on the other hand you have the Security Council thats tasked with. Peace and security but often fails to do so as a direct result of the veto power wielded by only five countries the arguable incompetence of the United Nations has been most evident recently in the debate over the us is decision to recognize illegally occupied jerusalem as the capital of israel as miroslav might check the president of the Un General Assembly talks while jazeera he tells us that despite all of it struts cummings the u. N. Is the best option for world peace. For the like to thank you very much for talking to aljazeera thank you for inviting proprietory your arrival in doha you were in the United Arab Emirates and just over a week ago there was a complaint filed by petards un representative to the u. N. About the jets infiltrating cutty airspace the situation here is extremely fragile to say the least whats your message or what has your message been to the people that youve been meeting and the emirates and here in order to find a solution to this crisis yes its true that prior to my visits to qatar i visited United Arab Emirates and kuwait as well and of course i use my meetings with leaders of those countries including here to discuss the regional situation which is sensitive and i think the talks i had helped me to to get a much better picture about the situation right now and im going to discuss it with the secretary general and then he will take action right now to answer your question about the message message is to stay calm to avoid any. Provocations and of course to to resort to dialogue plus i also believe that the region has the capacity. To sort out these these people. And they do National Community is worried but also believes that there will be a solution that will be a negotiated solution which will be regional led what role does the u. N. General assembly have you think what role could it play to make this solution come a bit faster because this is a crisis that has been going on now for for seven months and it is threatening what is the last remaining stable. Piece of land or area so to speak within what is a very turbulent middle east region the gulf is literally maybe the last part of the middle east that isnt faults with the gulf is definitely a very public voice and the voice is missing right now because of the internal situation in the region and thats why thats why i believe youve seen interest of every country that belongs to this region to find a solution and in General Assembly can play a role but has not been requested to do so which is good i think at this stage because un steps in when there is. No possibility for local or regional actors to find a solution so United Nations does not impose itself on any of the of the situations and i really believe that we have a lot of trust in mediation efforts and i encourage to my partners in kuwait to continue business as well the only issue of imposing maybe actually there is a much more pressing conflict that isnt far from from the g. C. C. That the g. C. C. Is playing a role in which would require you to actually impose and that is the war in yemen thats been led by saudi arabia and also orchestrated by the iraqis and according to the u. N. Its transformed yemen into the worst humanitarian crisis of our time children are either killed by the bombs or theyre killed by color or by starvation why has the General Assembly not pushed for an end to this war how much more suffering has to happen for the u. N. To. Restart put its foot down and say this has to stop now because its not for the General Assembly to do so this is a the primary priority for all responsibility of the Security Council which according to the charter is the body responsible for maintenance of International Peace and security. The General Assembly deals with issues when they are brought to their attention or asked to be put on the agenda which has not been the case of course United Nations followed the situation very closely and we are very much worried about a dire humanitarian see to what why do you think it hasnt been put on the agenda what stopped at least the General Assembly coming out and discussing gets and maybe even suggesting that this should then go to the Security Council is it because saudi money or the p. R. Is so well functional that it prevents countries from going to the General Assembly its not my role to speculate and the president of the General Assembly i to protect the dignity and integrity of United Nations General Assembly and also to respect the division of responsibilities between and among different u. N. Bodies and as i said the General Assembly of course according to the charter can deal with any matter but the issues that have directly to do with the peace and security should be addressed primarily by the u. N. Security council the war in syria iraq afghanistan to name just a few years forced hundreds of thousands if not millions of people to flee their homes risking their lives just to get to safety this is been going on for several years now you yourself have been very vocal about this issue and despite the fact that this is been going on for years we still see video of those crammed inflatable car we call them boats you know rubber dinghies essentially sinking in the middle of the sea we still see the videos and pictures of the children washed up to the shore why is this problem not been solved so now its an irony that. Big does a global phenomenon as it is we do not have a Single International convention or framework addressing these issues. Of migration and this is exactly what we are doing right now at the United Nations General Assembly we are working on another option of the first ever International Document called Global Compact for safe orderly and regular migration and the name already indicates it was the purpose to limit the unsafe disorderly and irregular migration and to try to establish rules so that people move out of choice and out of need and when they are on the move their rights are protected and they the dignity is protected but after this phenomenon of refugees essentially feeling that they have more chance to survive in the midst of the seas without any kind of proper vessel to take them to across the waters then if they stay at home that despite all of this increase over the past couple of years that the best the United Nations can do is come up with a non legally binding document you see how this is something maybe that makes people lose faith in the United Nations. No i dont think so United Nations is here to set a global standard and to be a Global Leader and we need to help to address the global phenomenon and to help the Member States to turn this or transform into their National Legislation migration. Well in recent years made that migration has been identified with the people who are crossing the mediterranean and many of them groaning and losing their lives tragically and migration has many forms and of course people my good as a consequence of conflicts but also better governance and also Climate Change so we need one. Comprehensive if you will on the backs of the vast majority i think its fair to say or not the vast majority but the majority at least this as a result or direct result of conflicts and wars and my question is its true that governments are failing the most vulnerable its not just the United Nations youre talking about governments that refused to allow people in people simply dont think that its do native nations was failing here its the government of course and the conflicts and conflicts dont happen out of nothing else but the United Nations is tasked with trying to solve these conflicts and thats what this is to do yes governments are feeling but there is a root cause true these which is the conflict itself so surely rather than trying to look at ways of convincing governments to allow more people and surely rather than to look at ways of how to protect these migrants from getting from one place to another we should look at the root cause of it which is the actual war in the conflict itself we are right now working very hard in the United Nations to strengthen their all of the organization in preventing conflicts but the Member States if they are not willing United Nations cannot force them to do so. What we can do is to adopt the Security Council resolution and its legally binding is it always respected not necessarily so we really need to strengthen the atmosphere of zero tolerance against those who are violating international. More who are not respecting the Security Council resolutions or General Assembly that resolution one of the main countries that was a source of migrants departing towards europe is libya now the United Nations has imposed an arms embargo on libya where theres essentially been a civil war there going on for several years now and according to the uns own reports that was released in june i believe of two thousand and seventy and it says the United Arab Emirates has repeatedly broken thats essentially fueling the conflict even more and resulting in more and more migrants crossing over what can the General Assembly do to prevent countries like the emirates from undermining the un and what is the use of the un if it cant even impose a simple arms embargo on a country like libya first of all i dont think that its sort of the role of the president of the General Assembly to single out individual countries and Member States im here to mobilize the interNational Community as such to solve problems and to solve conflicts libya but its not its the uns on the point. And any words should prompt us to address the situation and of course we are discussing these issues in the General Assembly i dont think resolutions its also the media that can help a lot because of some of the media reports about the un human treatment of people in in some places in libya. Prompted us for to take action very quickly so i do believe that we should look at a decision as i would come on pain and i would come on problem rather than to point fingers at each other some people say that while the worlds conscience is represented in the General Assembly the power is concentrated in the five permanent members of the Security Council arguably that was never more evident than during the last months vote on occupied jerusalem in the decision by President Donald Trump to recognize it as the capital of israel you presided over a session so the worlds biggest superpower a century threats from anyone who dared to vote against its will be taking names is what the us is that i said at the time. Whats your views on that session. I think the session was a message in itself. At many levels the outcome of the world was overwhelming you had to two thirds of the Member States one hundred twenty eight voting in favor of the resolution Nine Countries voting against. The session showed very strong support of the International Committee of the majority of the interNational Community for what have been the principles of solving this issue namely the two state solution which would be negotiated by the israelis by the palestinians at the same time decisions show that we cannot take multilateralism for granted and therefore we all have to stand up for it and we have to stand up for a strong will of the United Nations because exactly as you said the General Assembly is the global conscious its the only platform where one hundred ninety three Member States are presented and have equal rights and equal say you know despite being the global conscience its ignored because on the one hand you have almost every country in the world votes to denounce the United States over and reform that jerusalem is not is very end on the other hand we had the United States veto a motion at the Security Council essentially to spite almost every country in the world so how does that work i dont think it was ignored on the contrary i mean both the deep discussion in the Security Council and its outcome and then the discussion in the General Assembly and its outcome were widely covered by the media all over the world the message was very powerful and the conclusions to be drawn by every member state by every government and sometimes these moral message is more powerful than a legally binding one but. The reality of the matter is the worlds biggest superpower the United States will go ahead and move its embassy i mean every country is free to do what it once but will recognize occupied land as the capital of israel and there will be no sanctions imposed on the United States there will be no resolution passed by the United Nations to essentially punish or to try and prevent the United States from. Supporting the theft of london and the expulsion of of people look im not a fortune teller we dont know what will happen a year two three five ten from now on what is clear is that the General Assembly and the two thirds majority of Member States expresident for the south clearly on this matter and i think this disability message will not go unnoticed do you think that the two state solution as adopted by the United Nations is viable after what has happened. And do you fear that the. Approach to try and find some sort of political resolution to what is one of the all this conflict ongoing conflicts in the world that this is still an option on the table after what the United States has done the two state solution is the only solution we support is the only solution that has been discussed the only solution that is clearly been negotiated and has a strong support of the United Nations and other International Organizations yes we are struggling now to get the process back on track but ive never been clear for how can there be one went without jerusalem. Jerusalem is part of the negotiation process do so in stages of journalism should be negotiated directly between the parties and its part of the overall package and we need to support this and as secretary general until you get to this said more than once there is no plan b. So we only have one plan which is two state solution no one has ever presented any other solution and no one has ever proved that any other solution would be better the General Assembly set up one of the uns most important agencies to deal with Palestinian Refugees namely the relief and works agency or iraq as its known is

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