It Would Be Great To Have A Woman Elected As The Next Secretary-General, Churkin

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia said today (2 Sep) that "it would be great" to have a woman elected as the next Secretary-General, but expressed concern that for "some of those people who vocally are advocating a female Secretary-General," their interest "is to step out of the Eastern European group."

Churkin, who was speaking to reporters about the Security Council's programme of work for the month of September, addressed a variety of issues.

Speaking about the US-led coalition campaign against the Islamic State (ISIL), he said "we are not going to join a coalition which is operating outside of the decisions of the Security Council, with no authorization of the Security Council."

The Russian Ambassador said the coalition "bombed the Syrian territory without the consent of the Syrian government and without authorization from the Security Council" adding that the coalition "cannot make their choice between fighting the Syrian government and ISIL."

On a French proposal to limit the veto power by permanent members in the Security Council, he said "we see it as somewhat of a populist proposal. If France wants to limit its own veto, they are welcome, but I can tell you that there are some members of the Security Council, permanent members, not just Russia, who are you know, who understand how important it is as a tool which allows the Security Council to produce balanced decisions which allows the minority opinion to be reflected in the work of the Security Council."

On the recent agreement on Iran's nuclear programme, achieved through the work of the P5+1 group, Churkin said "the spirit of working so closely on such, the key players, on such a difficult subject it was a very good experience" and expressed hope that "it would be possible to try to integrate Iran closer into the efforts to resolve for example the Syrian situation."
STORY: UN / CHURKIN PRESSER
SOURCE: UNIFEED-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 2 SEPTEMBER 2015, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

2 SEPTEMBER 2015, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, dais
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
"It would be great to have a woman, I personally think, as a Secretary-General, but do we need to, you know, limit our options? And here, seriously, comes a strong concern by some members in the Eastern European group that some of those people who vocally are advocating a female Secretary-General, their interest is not really, their main interest, is not really gender interest, their interest is to step out of the Eastern European group."
5. Med shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
"We are not going to join a coalition which is operating outside of the decisions of the Security Council, with no authorization of the Security Council. They bombed the Syrian territory without the consent of the Syrian government and without authorization from the Security Council. In Iraq, at least, we understand that they got the acquiescence or the agreement by the Iraqi government, but not in Syria. They cannot figure out their priorities. We believe that clearly the priority now is to fight ISIL, but they like cannot make their choice between fighting the Syrian government and ISIL."
7. Med shot, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
"We see it as somewhat of a populist proposal. If France wants to limit its own veto, they are welcome, but I can tell you that there are some members of the Security Council, permanent members, not just Russia, who are you know, who understand how important it is as a tool which allows the Security Council to produce balanced decisions which allows the minority opinion to be reflected in the work of the Security Council."
9. Med shot, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
"The spirit of working so closely on such, the key players, on such a difficult subject it was a very good experience. And specifically, clearly, there is a hope that after that it would be possible to try to integrate Iran closer into the efforts to resolve for example the Syrian situation. Because, there are, I haven't seen anybody or haven't talked to anybody who does not realize that Iran has an important role to play, but not everybody has yet accepted the need to integrate Iran in those discussions."
11. Zoom out, end of presser

DURATION: 02:37