The Security Council this morning decided to authorize Member States for a period of one year to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya that they had reasonable grounds to suspect were being used for migrant smuggling or human trafficking from that country.
Haiti’s success in conducting the first round of long-awaited legislative elections, reforming its criminal code and maintaining a generally stable security environment was evidence of “a new order” that was paving the way for the United Nations to rethink the size and strength of its future presence on the island nation, agreed speakers in the Security Council today.
The mandate of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) had not yet been fulfilled, Martin Kobler, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the Mission told the Security Council today, stressing that “we have a duty and responsibility to ensure that the Congo is secure and stable, and that the progress that has been attained thus far will be irreversible.”
The path to peace in Mali was fraught with unexpected obstacles, and implementation of the peace agreement had been delayed by violations of the ceasefire agreements and actions by terrorist groups and trans-border criminal elements, Mongi Hamdi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Mali and head of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) told the Security Council this morning.
Rampant instability and terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa could only be stemmed through a united, comprehensive approach that addressed root causes, speakers stressed to the Security Council today in an all-day high-level open debate presided over by the Russian Foreign Minister with a briefing by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Emphasizing the need for continued progress on constitutional and institutional reform in Liberia, the Security Council today renewed the mandate of the United Nations mission there until 30 September 2016, continuing the drawdown in advance of that country’s expected assumption of full responsibility for security by the middle of next year.
As the threats faced by Afghanistan’s war-weary people did not all emanate from their own territory, they were entitled to international support, particularly from the region, in dealing with those pressing challenges, the top United Nations official in that country told the Security Council today.
The Security Council must not escape its responsibility to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict, as human suffering in that country had worsened, not diminished, a United Nations senior humanitarian affairs official told the 15-nation body today.
Sanctions imposed on Iran under successive Security Council resolutions remained in full effect until the 15-member body received confirmation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the country had taken a set of nuclear-related actions in accordance with resolution 2231 (2015), the head of the designated sanctions committee said today.
With fresh violence erupting around the holy sites of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israelis and Palestinians should not let fear triumph, but should create conducive conditions for resuming peace negotiations, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today.
