Security Council: Meetings Coverage

Yemenis had learned that the “gun as a tool to answer the legitimate aspirations has passed, and a peaceful solution can emerge from the ashes of conflict”, the United Nations top official in that country told the Security Council today in a briefing on recent developments.

With women caught in the crossfire in Mali, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other conflict-affected countries, the world must ramp up support and efforts to ensure their vital voices were heard, heeded and included in peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and beyond, top United Nations officials told the Security Council today during a day-long debate on women and peace and security.

The Security Council this morning commended Sierra Leone on the holding of successful presidential, parliamentary, district and local elections, calling upon all political parties and candidates to accept the results and to work with the Government in a constructive manner, through national dialogue and reconciliation.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq remained an important factor in helping that country to “stay the course” and complete its transition to an inclusive, stable and prosperous democracy in the face of a national political stalemate and regional turmoil that had left it vulnerable to extremist violence, the Mission chief Martin Kobler told the Security Council today.

Failure to resolve security, economic and political problems in South Sudan continued to have a direct impact on the country’s fragile stability and security, the United Nations’ top peacekeeping official told the Security Council this morning during a briefing on recent events.

Reiterating its demand for an end to any and all outside support to the insurgency ravaging the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Security Council today renewed until 1 February 2014 the arms embargo and related sanctions on that country, and requested the Secretary-General to extend the mandate of the Group of Experts monitoring those measures.

Strong Security Council support for a new phase of genuine dialogue in Kosovo was needed in order to ensure that both sides could firmly seize the opportunity to build a stable future, the top United Nations official there said today as he delivered a briefing on recent events.

Following the Gaza escalation, which last week brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the “brink of a crisis that could have engulfed the region”, it was more vital than ever not only to bring a sustainable end to violence, but to achieve a fair and lasting peace, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative told the Security Council this morning.

In the fifth annual debate on the working methods of the Security Council today, speakers acknowledged progress towards more transparency and efficiency in the operations of the 15-member body, while calling for more meaningful engagement between it and the wider United Nations membership.

Warmly welcoming the ceasefire declared between Israel and Hamas just hours before, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this afternoon told the Security Council via video link from Tel Aviv, Israel, that it was now critical to address underlying causes in order to keep the violence, and the great suffering it caused civilians, from flaring up again.