Security Council: Meetings Coverage

With no humanitarian solutions to the crisis in Syria, the immense suffering of its people would only worsen until a political settlement ended the conflict, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today.

Reiterating its strong condemnation of terrorist attacks, human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law by Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin region, the Security Council today stressed the need to bring to justice those responsible.

The Security Council today decided to authorize the Member States of the African Union to maintain the deployment of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) until 30 May 2016, agreeing with the Secretary-General that conditions would not be appropriate for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country until the end of that year, at the earliest.

Calling for decisive action to reverse the growing perception that the two-State solution was dying a death “by a thousand cuts”, the top United Nations Middle East envoy today urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to engage in a broad political framework with the goal of achieving a final status agreement, during the Security Council’s quarterly open debate on the subject.

While Iraq was living through one of the most difficult phases in its modern history since last summer’s onslaught by terrorists, there were also hope, opportunity and vision for the way out of the crisis, the senior United Nations representative in that country told the Security Council today.

The Security Council today coalesced around a sweeping resolution that endorsed the 14 July agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme, setting out a rigorous monitoring mechanism and timetable for implementation, while paving the way for the lifting of United Nations sanctions against that country.

Establishing a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia at this time would be a “high-risk undertaking” due to continued threats from the Al-Shabaab militant group, a senior United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council today.

Libya was at a critical stage and the political agreement signed by several of its leaders last week had brought the country one step closer to ending its four-year conflict, the senior United Nations official there told the Security Council today, urging all parties to engage constructively in the dialogue process.

The fulfilment of the mandate of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) rested on “persistent engagement” with the Government on the security situation in the East, the electoral process and the ongoing strategic dialogue, the Security Council heard today during its periodic briefing on the subject.

The Security Council today extended until 15 December 2015 the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping operation for the disputed Abyei area bordering Sudan and South Sudan.