PBS高端访谈:联合国安理会召开有关叙利亚局势的部长级会议

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: As we just reported, late this afternoon, the 15 nations on the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to endorse¹ a framework for a peace process in Syria, after nearly five years of brutal² civil war that's left more than 250,000 dead and millions displaced.

　　For more, we go to Hari Sreenivasan.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: And with me to explore the details of this deal, what's at stake, and the long road to this point is chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner.

　　So, we've seen the headline during the day. How significant is this?

　　MARGARET WARNER: This is a very deal, Hari. You've got all the members of the Security Council, not just the members to have the region who have been involved in this, but all the members of the Security Council, some of who vehemently³ disagreed about the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to agree on resolutions setting up the process that will set up not only a cease-fire between Assad and many of his opposition⁴ groups on the ground but direct talks between the two of them. And it now has the imprimatur of the U.N. Security Council, and Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general, committed to help implement⁵ it.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: So, there'd been a lot of countries working toward this, but there are four major players and smack-dab in the middle of all this is Bashar al-Assad.

　　联合国安理会召开有关叙利亚局势的部长级会议MARGARET WARNER: That's right. The major division among many concerns his future. On one side, you've got the United States and the Gulf⁶ states who began all this wanting Assad gone as soon as possible, and both have supported opposition groups on the ground in different ways. But on the other side you've got Russia and Iran, both of them regard Syria, and Syria is a client state for different reasons. Both of them have sent military assistance weapons advisors⁷, even fighters, and in Russia's case bombs, to try to shore him up.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: And there's tensions between the United States and Russia.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Yes, that's very true. Then you have another cross-cutting tension between the U.S. and Russia, which would be for influence in this process. For a long time, Russia wasn't very involved and then it inserted itself in September by beginning this bombing, and won itself a place at the table, because they want influence over the outcome.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: And Saudi Arabia and Iran have their tensions.

　　MARGARET WARNER: They certainly do. And, in fact, that's part of the knob of all of this. Saudi Arabia, leader of the Sunni states in this region, and Iran, of course, Shiite state, huge historical rivalry⁸ for primacy in this region.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: All right. So, what did peace players all actually get over their disagreements and agree to?

　　MARGARET WARNER: Which really is incredible. I think it's two things, Hari. One is threat of international terrorism. Even the Chinese foreign minister this to reporters today, we've got to get the process going because of threat of international terrorism.

　　They have come to the conclusion that they can never take on ISIS until the boil of the Syrian conflict, until they launch that boil. That remember was the original, not only attracter but incubator of all of the thousands of foreign fighters coming in, helping⁹ beef up this al-Qaida in Iraq that became ISIS, helping them establish them this caliphate in the ungoverned portion of eastern Syria and roll on into Iraq and they recognize there's no way to take them on.

　　The second thing that they've agreed on is that, militarily, it can't be solved. Every one of them, these four countries, has supported different groups on the ground and they now all realize they have been sucked into a quagmire¹⁰. There is no military resolution, has to be political.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: All right. So, one thing at the dead center of all this is Assad. The next steps here, this agreement doesn't mention him by name, which is one of those central tensions you mentioned.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Absolutely, and they had to do it that way because the differences remain and so they had to finesse¹¹ it. They talk about a political transition. The United States believes if you have a transition to an inclusive nonsectarian government which is its language they've agreed on, there is no way an autocrat¹² for minority Alawites can be head of that government, so they think you'll eventually get to that point and the Russians have signaled the United States they're not so much wedded¹³ to Assad as the idea of a unitary state.

　　So the steps are a very, very tall order, which is to set up both the cease-fire in January and these direct talks. I think it's going to be very hard. There are other disagreements, including who gets to sit in for the opposition. This is just one step in other words of trying to maintain the momentum¹⁴ to get to the political resolution.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: And getting to the cease-fire, you have to know who's on which side of the table.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Right.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: I mean, who exactly is the enemy of Assad, which countries think should be at the table.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Very important point.

　　The opposition, which have never agreed on anything, finally had a meeting in Riyadh a week ago and they actually chose the group that then will choose the group to sit at the table, OK? It's very indirect.

　　But meanwhile, all these other countries, all of them, have different candidates that they want to nominate for too much of the terrorist to be at the table. So, they include some groups that have been clients of Iran, some of them clients of Saudi Arabia. All of that is still unresolved. Jordan is supposed to be coordinating¹⁵ this, poor Jordan, so that all remains¹⁶ to be resolved.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: So, big first step today.

　　But thank you very much, Margaret Warner.

　　MARGARET WARNER: My pleasure.

 

1 endorse   

vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意

参考例句：

• No one is foolish enough to endorse it.没有哪个人会傻得赞成它。
• I fully endorse your opinions on this subject.我完全拥护你对此课题的主张。

2 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

3 vehemently   

adv. 热烈地

参考例句：

• He argued with his wife so vehemently that he talked himself hoarse. 他和妻子争论得很激烈，以致讲话的声音都嘶哑了。
• Both women vehemently deny the charges against them. 两名妇女都激烈地否认了对她们的指控。

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

5 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 advisors   

n.顾问，劝告者( advisor的名词复数 )；（指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• The governors felt that they were being strung along by their advisors. 地方长官感到他们一直在受顾问们的愚弄。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• We will consult together with advisors about her education. 我们将一起和专家商议她的教育事宜。 来自互联网

8 rivalry   

n.竞争，竞赛，对抗

参考例句：

• The quarrel originated in rivalry between the two families.这次争吵是两家不和引起的。
• He had a lot of rivalry with his brothers and sisters.他和兄弟姐妹间经常较劲。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 quagmire   

n.沼地

参考例句：

• On their way was a quagmire which was difficult to get over.路上他俩遇到了—个泥坑,很难过得去。
• Rain had turned the grass into a quagmire.大雨使草地变得一片泥泞。

11 finesse   

n.精密技巧，灵巧，手腕

参考例句：

• It was a disappointing performance which lacked finesse.那场演出缺乏技巧，令人失望。
• Lillian Hellman's plays are marked by insight and finesse.莉莲.赫尔曼的巨作以富有洞察力和写作技巧著称。

12 autocrat   

n.独裁者；专横的人

参考例句：

• He was an accomplished politician and a crafty autocrat.他是个有造诣的政治家，也是个狡黠的独裁者。
• The nobles tried to limit the powers of the autocrat without success.贵族企图限制专制君主的权力,但没有成功。

13 wedded   

adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She's wedded to her job. 她专心致志于工作。
• I was invited over by the newly wedded couple for a meal. 我被那对新婚夫妇请去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

15 coordinating   

v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的现在分词 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• He abolished the Operations Coordinating Board and the Planning Board. 他废除了行动协调委员会和计划委员会。 来自辞典例句
• He's coordinating the wedding, and then we're not going to invite him? 他是来协调婚礼的，难道我们不去请他？ 来自电影对白

16 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。