NEW YORK - Media stakeout following the briefing to the Security Council by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto.

TRANSCRIPT

MEDIA STAKEOUT FOLLOWING SRSG TADAMICHI YAMAMOTO’S
BRIEFING TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL

New York – 21 December 2017

(near verbatim)

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Participants:

• UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto

Tadamichi Yamamoto: Good afternoon. I just finished the meeting on Afghanistan. In the meeting today, there were clear focuses, one on elections and one on peace efforts. On elections, there was a clear consensus that the timeline of the elections be met, and that their conduct be credible and transparent. The second focus was on peace efforts. There is going to be a meeting, the Kabul Process on Peace and Reconciliation, on 1 February. A lot of expectation was made on that particular meeting, particularly in terms of consolidating international efforts. On both issues of elections and peace and reconciliation, it was stressed that an Afghan lead and an Afghan ownership are critical. These were I think the main points of the meeting today.

Question: The international criminal court has made a request to review some of the events in Afghanistan since 2003. What do you think of that? I understand the ICC is separate from the UN, but obviously would have some ramifications in the country. What’s your thought on that?

Yamamoto: They have work to conduct, and the United Nations has a general understanding that we would work with them. So we’ll see how it goes. It just started, and we have to look how it goes.

Question: What could you say about a possible Security Council trip to Afghanistan?

Yamamoto: If it takes place, I think it’s a great thing. It’s one of those things which I think has to be held very confidentially.

Question: What is the progress in terms of getting the Taliban into the peace process?

Yamamoto: Well, not much actually. And I think that’s one of the things that the Kabul Process, and efforts leading up to that, will have to address. It is very important that the Taliban comes to the table, and all efforts have to be made.

Question: What is the reason for their hesitation in joining the process?

Yamamoto: I think that is very well known. They have their own position as to how they want to join the peace efforts, which is that they don’t want to have direct negotiation with the Afghan government at the moment, but I think that this is what we are trying to make them understand, that this is actually very important.