Meetings Coverage

Protracted deadlock in Afghanistan over the result of presidential elections deepened a crisis that had already taken a heavy political, security and economic toll, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council today.

Despite an unprecedented array of such weighty challenges as poverty, armed conflicts and climate change, the international community could achieve great things with dedication and single-mindedness of purpose and compromise, said the new President of the General Assembly this afternoon as he opened its sixty-ninth session.

As negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme continued, the 1737 Committee on Iran sanctions would continue its work of monitoring implementation, investigating alleged violations and responding to requests for guidance from Member States, its Chair told the Security Council this afternoon.

Describing a crisis situation in Libya as deteriorating towards chaos, the Secretary-General's new Special Representative, briefing the Security Council, pledged the perseverance of the United Nations in efforts to engage the parties in a political solution to end the factional armed violence.

Urging a stepped-up international response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, the Security Council this morning decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia until 31 December 2014 with no changes in deployment.

The General Assembly’s sixty-eighth session came to a close today, with the outgoing President noting that there had been some great successes in the past session, despite the challenging circumstances.

As the Security Council took up the Secretary-General’s report on the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), speakers voiced an array of views on the proposed drawdown of that operation’s presence, particularly in light of the recent political impasse impeding legislative, national and local elections from being held by the mandated deadline.

The General Assembly adopted three resolutions today, including one that would pave the way for the incorporation of sustainable development goals into the post-2015 development agenda.

The severity of the Ebola outbreak presented Liberia with its gravest threat since the civil war, and the United Nations Mission there had to reorient its activities and its planning to help stem it, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning.

The General Assembly adopted four resolutions today, including one on sovereign debt restructuring that would establish an intergovernmental negotiation process aimed at increasing the efficiency, stability and predictability of the international financial system.