And the Secretary-General himself is now on his way back to New York from Madrid, where he met this morning with the Spanish Prime Minister and the Spanish Foreign Minister.
During a joint press conference with the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero, the Secretary-General referred to the situation in Georgia and expressed his concern over the complex and unpredictable humanitarian situation on the ground. The Secretary-General stated that teams from the UN refugee agency continue to closely monitor those movements and to provide material support to the displaced. Responding to a question regarding the situation in Western Sahara, the Secretary-General noted that he recognized the importance of maintaining the momentum of the negotiations as long as the parties are committed to the process. In the meantime, he said, he welcomed the parties’ agreement to expand the programme of confidence-building measures. It has a direct impact on the quality of life of Saharans and it can help build trust, which could help break the impasse in other areas, he said. Yesterday, the Secretary-General made a stop-over in Zaragoza, where he visited the international EXPO 2008 under the theme “Water and Sustainable Development”. He visited a number of pavilions. And the Secretary-General addressed guests at the pavilion which is a forum devoted to Water, where he expressed the UN´s commitment to protecting and properly managing the world´s precious water resources. That morning, the Secretary-General had attended in Geneva a ceremony to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the bombing of the UN Headquarters in Baghdad. He had met with families of the victims and some survivors of the event that struck the Organization on 19 August 2003. Prior to that, he visited the site where the remains of the UN flag that was retrieved from the December 2007 attack on a UN office in Algiers, and laid a wreath. On Sunday, he addressed the opening of the twenty-ninth session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that marked the twentieth anniversary of the Panel.
seen at 12:00, 2 September
in
Spokesman for the UN Secretary General.
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