The Security Council today endorsed a road map for a peace process in Syria, setting out an early-January timetable for United Nations-facilitated talks between the Government and opposition members, as well as the outlines of a nationwide ceasefire to begin as soon as the parties concerned had taken initial steps towards a political transition.
In a sweeping move to suppress the financing of terrorism, the Security Council today expanded and strengthened its Al-Qaida sanctions framework to include a focus on Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) in an unprecedented meeting that heard finance ministers from around the world outline efforts to dismantle funding channels to a terrorist group now in control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Outgoing members of the Security Council — Chad, Jordan, Lithuania, Chile and Nigeria — briefed the 15-member body today on their work during their two-year tenure as Chairs of various subsidiary bodies, sharing their highlights, concerns and recommendations.
The Security Council today deplored all acts of trafficking in human beings by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), Boko Haram and other terrorist groups, underscoring that certain acts associated with that practice in the context of armed conflict might constitute war crimes.
It was sad that after the Secretary-General’s visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah two months ago, and despite a decline in the number of attacks over the past few weeks, the bloodshed between Israelis and Palestinians had not stopped, Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told the Security Council today.
The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) until 31 July 2016, deciding to increase force levels up to 13,000 troops and 2,001 police personnel amid concerns among some members over the potential use of unarmed unmanned aerial vehicles, sanctions and technical support for a hybrid court created to prosecute the perpetrators of mass-atrocity crimes.
The Security Council today extended until 15 May 2016 the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping operation for the disputed Abyei area bordering Sudan and South Sudan.
The Panel of Experts assisting the Security Council’s so-called 1737 Iran Sanctions Committee found that the country’s attempted procurement of Grade 5 titanium alloy bars had been in violation of resolution 1737 (2006) and subsequent texts, the subsidiary body’s Chair told the 15-member organ today.
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the Security Council today that she wished she could declare that victims of the protracted conflict in Darfur would soon see justice at last, and that those alleged to be responsible for Rome Statute crimes in that western region of Sudan would soon be held accountable before the Court.
Fresh from a constitutional referendum, the Central African Republic was now entering the final and most sensitive phase of its electoral process, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today, as he called for “uncompromising” rejection of any attempt to obstruct the country’s return to constitutional order.
