Security Council: Meetings Coverage

Twenty years of endless negotiations and conflict in the Middle East since the signing of the Oslo Accords had undermined the belief that peace was possible, but the same 20 years of peace efforts had also demonstrated that fair, reasonable and legitimate solutions could be found, a United Nations envoy for the region told the Security Council in a regular monthly briefing today.

Following four decades of despotic rule in Libya, it was evident that preconceived ideas about political transition were more likely to be a “recipe for disappointment, if not failure”, as demand for a national dialogue to address the faltering process grew across the political spectrum, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council today.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Nicholas Kay, told the Security Council this afternoon that, if asked if he was optimistic about Somalia, his answer would be a resounding “yes” — for “behind the twists and turns, the crises and the standoffs, Somalia has the foundations for progress”.

Liberia should be proud of its achievements, but 10 years was too short a time in which to reverse the effects of a war that left a nation shattered and overturn more than a century of social and political exclusion, as well as poor governance, the Security Council heard today.

Iran had remained silent to inquiries about its ballistic missile launches and an intercepted arms shipment, the Chair of the Security Council Committee charged with monitoring sanctions on that country said today.

Security Council members today hailed the progress made in implementing the historic April agreement between Serbia and Kosovo as the senior United Nations official delivered his latest briefing amid calls for leaders on both sides to stay the course.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon until 31 August 2014, with no major operational changes.

Haiti is at a critical turning point, where it needs to hold credible elections this year as it prepares for a gradual drawdown of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in that country, the world body’s senior official there told the Security Council today.

Gravely concerned at the continued challenges to implementation of the 27 September 2012 Cooperation Agreements between Sudan and South Sudan, the Security Council today called for urgent steps by the parties, including that they make use of the joint mechanisms established to facilitate implementation and cooperate with the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development.

Following a prolonged political stalemate amid continuing regional unrest, the direct talks resumed last month between the Israelis and the Palestinians represented a “small but important” opening for peace, a senior United Nations political official told the Security Council this morning.