The Secretary-General travelled to the Middle East today and met with the Prime Ministers of Palestine and Israel, Israel’s opposition leader and Quartet representative Tony Blair. He was encouraged by the amount committed by donors at the Cairo conference on Gaza’s reconstruction and the Israeli Prime Minister’s support for a temporary mechanism for rebuilding.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The Secretary-General congratulated Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, two of the world’s greatest champions for children, on being awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize for Peace. He said the true winners today are the world’s children.
In Washington, D.C., today the Secretary-General participated in several meetings, including key sessions on the fight against Ebola, and said that the building blocks for a global response to counter the virus was in place, but that at least a 20-fold surge in assistance was needed and that it was time for the international community to step up.
The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, briefing the Security Council on Mali today via videolink, expressed concern at the rate of attacks in the last months against the United Nations Mission there. The recent number of victims in the Mission was one of the highest seen in peacekeeping operations.
The Secretary-General will go to Washington, D.C., tomorrow for meetings with the World Bank and its President on countering Ebola, improving sanitation in Haiti and supporting financing for development. Afterwards he will travel to Tunis to express support for Tunisia’s transition process, and then to Cairo for a donor conference on Gaza reconstruction.
The Secretary-General is outraged by today’s attack in Mali that killed nine Nigerien peacekeepers. At a time when peace negotiations are under way, he insists that all parties must demonstrate good faith and commitment to a political solution and that the perpetrators of these appalling actions are brought to justice.
In Liberia, today, the Head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, after briefing the press, then visited Lofa’s county treatment centre and met with senior Government officials, civil society, non-governmental organizations, the United Nations Country Team and the peacekeeping Mission to gather information and assess needs on the ground.
The Secretary-General, in Geneva, said never in United Nations history have there been so many refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers. He welcomed the UN refugee agency’s launch of the campaign to end statelessness and urged more action to prevent forced displacement, address root causes and support solutions.
Briefing the Security Council on Syria, the Emergency Relief Coordinator said that in the past two weeks, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant forces had advanced in northern Aleppo and more than 160,000 people had fled into Turkey. Despite the dangers, the United Nations and its partners, including the World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund continue to reach millions of people in need.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, reaffirming its commitment to cooperate with the government of national unity, welcomed the inauguration of Mohammad Ashraf Ghani as the new President today, as well as the pledges made by President Ghani and the Chief Executive Officer, Abdullah Abdullah, to work together to serve all Afghans.