Security Council: Meetings Coverage

While welcoming the announcement by Mali’s interim Government that it would organize presidential elections by the end of July 2013, the United Nations top political official told the Security Council today that nearly one year after a military coup threw the country into turmoil, “concerted, broad-based” measures were needed to tackle its serious and closely linked challenges.

The Security Council today approved the creation of its first-ever “offensive” combat force, intended to carry out targeted operations to “neutralize and disarm” the notorious 23 March Movement (M23), as well as other Congolese rebels and foreign armed groups in strife-riven eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Acting on the recommendations of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council today decided that the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) would fully draw down its operations by 31 March 2014, wrapping up the latest phase of the Organization’s decades-long engagement with the West African country.

With the United Nations continuing the phased drawdown of its peacekeeping operations in Liberia, the Organization’s top official there briefed the Security Council today and underscored the importance of moving swiftly to address the social inequality, political infighting and other historic — and current — fissures that had led to decades of war and which still ran deep.

Following the visit by United States President Barak Obama to the Middle East last week, there was now an opening to develop a “serious and substantial” political initiative to achieve the negotiated two-State solution between Israelis and Palestinians that would best serve the interests, rights and aspirations of both sides, a top United Nations envoy told the Security Council today.

With high-level political negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo entering a “critical stage”, the top United Nations official in the region urged the Security Council to throw its weight behind the European Union-brokered talks and help the two sides overcome the inevitable “short term political challenges, anxieties and setbacks” that could yet derail the historic opportunity that was before them.

Despite some progress achieved in South Sudan’s transition towards a stable, viable State, internal security challenges and political fault-lines — exacerbated by a recent spate of inter-communal violence — continued to render the new country fragile and threaten peace and security throughout the region, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative warned the Security Council this afternoon.

An ongoing political stalemate, protracted demonstrations, terrorist attacks and strained Arab-Kurdish relations could fuel existing political and security challenges in Iraq, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning, urging the country to remain “determined and steadfast” during a very challenging time.

The stabilization process in Haiti had hit a number of difficulties — including a missed opportunity to hold elections last year — but the Caribbean nation could still surmount entrenched political divisions and launch institutional reforms vital for meeting the urgent security and economic needs of its citizens, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today.

The Security Council today extended for another year the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan and called on the Organization and the international community to bolster the Afghan Government’s efforts to take ownership of and leadership in National Priority Programmes covering security, governance, justice and socio-economic development.