Security Council: Meetings Coverage

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.

Briefing the Security Council on the work of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, including the transfer of cases to the Residual Mechanism, judges and prosecutors alike noted progress but stressed the need for continued support, while speakers in debate generally agreed that the voices of victims were being heard and historical records were being preserved.

If urgent funding were not secured immediately, hard-won gains made in Somalia would be reversed, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council today.

The Security Council expressed its disappointment and concern that the election of a new President of Lebanon did not take place within the constitutional time frame.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) for one year and expanded it to include support to the Federal Government and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) by providing strategic policy advice on peacebuilding and State-building, including in the lead-up to elections in 2016.

The Security Council voted unanimously to extend by six months the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau, stressing that the consolidation of peace and stability could only result from a consensual, inclusive and nationally owned transition process.

The Security Council today unanimously voted to renew the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei for four months, until 15 October, calling on the communities and Governments of Sudan and South Sudan to work with the United Nations towards resumed community dialogue and administration, under the supervision of a joint oversight body.

Despite hope for a “new chapter” for Ukraine after Sunday’s presidential elections, violence continued and deadly fighting peppered towns in the east, with the Secretary-General calling for the release of international monitors and appealing to all with influence to assist, Security Council members heard today.