Security Council: Meetings Coverage

Although encouraging signs in Ukraine pointed to a de-escalation of the conflict, including a 15-point peace plan proposed by its newly elected President and a week-long unilateral ceasefire, quick action was needed to make the most of those gains, the Security Council heard today.

Despite many unsettling developments in the Middle East, it was important not to lose sight of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the occupation which had scarred the lives of far too many for far too long, the Security Council heard today.

The recent deterioration of the political and security situation in the Sahel region was a cause for alarm, the senior official there told the Security Council today, emphasizing that implementation of the United Nations Integrated Strategy would require sustained political will on the part of neighbouring Governments, and profound transformations on all political, economic and social platforms.

Amid deteriorating security and increased violence in the northern town of Kidal, the ceasefire agreement between Mali’s Government and warring armed forces was an “important step in the right direction” to ending the West African country’s protracted crisis, the head of United Nations peacekeeping told the Security Council this morning.

Systematic and wide-spread crimes continued to be committed with total impunity in Darfur nearly 10 years since the situation there was referred to the International Criminal Court, Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the Security Council today.

The Security Council today unanimously adopted two resolutions addressing threats to international peace and security, the first on the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee and the second relating to the Taliban sanctions regime.

Resumed political dialogue between the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and the former ruling party was a significant step towards national reconciliation, but security and stability remained fragile, the head of the United Nations operation in that country told the Security Council today.

With some United Nations peacekeeping operations deployed in increasingly hostile environments, battling asymmetric unconventional threats where there was no peace to keep and no viable political process upon which to build, speakers in the Security Council today wrestled with the potentially injurious implications of “robust” mandates for the peacekeepers themselves.

Warning the use of force in strife-torn Libya would have “disastrous consequences”, the United Nations senior official in that country today urged all parties to resolve the current political impasse through peaceful means and called upon the Organization to facilitate a political dialogue.

The Security Council today extended until 9 July 2015 the mandate of the Panel of Experts originally established under resolution 1929 (2010) to further implementation of Council resolution 1737 (2006), by which it had called on Iran to build confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme.