(17 Mar 2016) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Geneva - 17 March 2016
1. Wide of press conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council and supervisor of UN Humanitarian aid shipment:
"We could report that today the third convoy to the four towns have been able to go on its way. They are delivering as we speak to Moadamiyeh, to Zabadani, to Kfarya and to Foua (Syrian towns). That convoy was held up twice in the last week because of fighting, and it just shows that still it is very difficult in many areas to get through with our relief but thankfully, now, we have been able to serve those four towns. It was not good to register that we have still not received permission to go to the remaining six of the 18 areas where we do not have permission to go, and that includes Daraya and Douma that are symbolically important."
3. Cutaway media
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council and supervisor of UN Humanitarian aid shipment:
"The impact of less fighting has been very clear - there is more access in more areas and it is less dangerous to go both with cross-line and cross-border assistance to many areas compared to the big bombardment period. I hope that Russia will be as instrumental in helping our humanitarian access work in the future as (they) have been in the past. That's how we work in that group, and that those who can influence opposition groups will also do so."
(Reporter: How instrumental were the Russians instrumental up until now?)
"Well in many of the places where convoys had problems in getting through, Russia was among the countries that intervened and helped - enabled convoys to get through. I remember, for example, Moadamiyeh. That was a convoy that was - you'll remember it was more than 30 hours standing at checkpoints, couldn't get through. Russia helped us getting through."
(Reporter: With Russian people on the ground helping?)
"The way we relate to the Russians is through their (UN) ambassador (Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin) and certainly they have people on the ground."
5. Egeland leaving
STORYLINE:
A supervisor of United Nations humanitarian aid shipments in Syria said on Thursday he hoped Russia would remain as "instrumental" in helping provide access to aid convoys as it was before Moscow announced a withdrawal of troops from the war-torn country.
Jan Egeland said Russia, which is backing Syria's Bashar Assad-led government, was among the countries that intervened when convoys encountered problems reaching besieged towns and villages.
He noted a case in Moadamiyeh, near Damascus, in which a convoy was stuck at a checkpoint for over 30 hours and "Russia helped us getting through."
Referring to Russia's government, Egeland said: "Certainly, they have people on the ground."
Egeland is humanitarian aid advisor to the UN.'s special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and spoke to reporters after a meeting of his task force in Geneva on Thursday.
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