Middle East Peace Process & other topics - Daily Press Briefing (26 March 2019)

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. Daily Press Briefing: Cyclone Idai Middle East Peace Process Syria Mali South Sudan Peacekeeping/Gender CYCLONE IDAI At a press encounter at UN Headquarters this morning, the Secretary-General said Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi have suffered one of the worst weather-related catastrophes in the history of Africa, with at least 700 people dead, hundreds still missing, and an estimated three million people affected – nearly two-thirds of them in Mozambique. He reiterated his complete solidarity with the people and Governments of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, adding that a $281.7 million revised appeal for Mozambique was launched yesterday, with a revised appeal for Zimbabwe and the response plan from the Government of Malawi to be issued in the days ahead. The Secretary-General added that such events are becoming more frequent and more severe, more devastating and more widespread, and this will only get worse if we do not act now.  MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS Briefing the Security Council this morning, Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said that a fragile calm seems to have taken hold, one day after at least 103 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza towards Israel, while the Israeli Air Force (IAF) conducted 42 strikes on various locations in Gaza.  He said that since the early hours of yesterday, he and his team have been working intensely with Egypt and all concerned parties to ensure that the situation does not spiral out of control. He reiterated that nobody has an interest in a full military confrontation in Gaza. The Special Coordinator asked the members of the Security Council to join the UN in condemning the continued indiscriminate firing of rockets by Hamas towards Israel. Such acts of provocation, he said, only dramatically increase the risk of escalation and ultimately damage our collective efforts to support the people of Gaza and intra-Palestinian reconciliation. He added that we must call on all sides to exercise maximum restraint, as the situation remains very tense. SYRIA Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy for Syria, over the weekend travelled to Riyadh, where he had detailed discussions with the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) on the same issues he discussed with the Government of Syria, and on how to carry forward a comprehensive political process based on Security Council resolution 2254. The Special Envoy said good progress was made.  He also had a valuable meeting with Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Pedersen appreciated his affirmation of Saudi support for a UN-facilitated Syrian political process based on Security Council resolution 2254. Meanwhile, on the humanitarian end, we are alarmed by continuing reports of civilian casualties due to hostilities in the northwest part of Syria. Today, in the town of Al-Sheikh Idrees, within the demilitarized zone of eastern rural Idleb Governorate, two children were reportedly killed, and a number of civilians injured when artillery shelling struck a primary school. Yesterday, a 12-year-old was reportedly killed, and three people were injured following the shelling in the demilitarized zone in rural Aleppo. We continue to call on all parties to cease all violations and abide by international humanitarian law. Read More: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon...