Meetings Coverage

Acting by consensus, the General Assembly today adopted an oral decision on Security Council reform, which allowed for continuing discussion on that subject during its forthcoming seventy‑third session.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved a draft resolution on peacekeeping today, endorsing the proposals and conclusions of the report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations.  It also elected a Vice-Chair to its Bureau.

Peace in South Sudan would only be sustainable through a fair and inclusive revitalized peace agreement that would take the root causes of the conflict into account, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today, as members of the 15-nation organ cautiously welcomed the rapprochement between the country’s President and former First Vice-President.

The Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) for another year today, maintaining its 13,289 troops and 1,920 police personnel while requesting that the Secretary-General expedite the generation of forces and assets.

Tackling terrorism required collective, coordinated action that overcame barriers to sharing information and required working in concert at a time when the complex global challenge had reached unprecedented levels, delegates heard today at the opening of the United Nations first‑ever High-level Conference on Counter‑Terrorism.

Nearly three years after its unanimous endorsement by the Security Council, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear issue was at a crossroads in the wake of the decision by the United States to withdraw from that agreement, the top United Nations official for political matters told the 15-nation organ today.

The Special Envoy for Syria warned the Security Council today that a full-scale battle in the country’s previously calm south-west could engulf an area and population the size of eastern Ghouta and Aleppo combined, adding that events seemed to be moving in that direction.

The Security Council decided today to re-appoint Serge Brammertz of Belgium as Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals for a term beginning on 1 July 2018 and ending on 30 June 2020.

Speakers shed light on their respective efforts to combat radicalization and violent extremism, as the General Assembly wrapped up its review of the Global Counter‑Terrorism Strategy today.

There were unprecedented opportunities for Afghanistan to seek peace and consolidate its political foundation, the Special Representative for that country told the Security Council today, pressing the international community to seize that critical opening to adjust how it supported the war-torn nation in bringing about democracy and self-reliance.