Security Council: Meetings Coverage

The Security Council decided today to renew until 31 May 2020 the arms embargo it imposed on South Sudan last year, as well as the sanctions put into place in 2015 on those blocking peace in the country.

The humanitarian response to fighting in north-western Syria, including Idlib, is stretched and further military action will overwhelm all ability to respond, the Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs warned the Security Council today, appealing to the 15-member body to take immediate action.

Along with holding perpetrators to account, the experiences and needs of civilian communities who suffer the daily brutalities of armed conflict must be incorporated into measures that protect them, speakers told the Security Council during an open debate today as it marked the twentieth anniversary of placing “the protection of civilians” on its agenda.

With the recent flare-up of violence in Gaza as the central topic of discussion in the Security Council today, members also considered the funding shortage affecting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The tasks of restoring cooperation between Somalia’s two tiers of government and denying Al-Shabaab the space to prepare and launch its attacks are vital for the country’s progress, senior officials told the Security Council today.

The ongoing political infighting is a costly obstacle to progress in Iraq, where corruption remains pervasive and top ministerial posts remain vacant, the senior United Nations official there told the Security Council today, as it decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations assistance mission in that country until 31 May 2020.

Libya is on the verge of a civil war that could split the country permanently, the senior United Nations official in that country warned the Security Council today, as that body’s members sounded the alarm over the rapid proliferation of weapons and the prospect of a major humanitarian catastrophe.

The Security Council decided today against holding a meeting requested by the Russian Federation to discuss the situation in Ukraine, with six members voting against and five in favour, with four abstentions.

The Security Council must ensure it remains vigilant against terrorist threats by updating the sanctions list of individuals and entities engaging in such activities, members said today during a joint briefing by the chairs of three of the Council’s subsidiary counter-terrorism bodies.

Escalating violence in north-western Syria threatens to trigger a humanitarian catastrophe that would affect more than 3 million people in the country’s Idlib Governorate, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, warning that a full military incursion would overwhelm all ability to respond.