Security Council: Meetings Coverage

Worried about the dangerous standstill in the Israeli-Palestinian political process, the top United Nations political official today encouraged the leaders of both sides to “respond positively” to last month’s speech by United States President Barack Obama in order to move the peace talks forward.

The head of the year-old United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) briefed the Security Council today on efforts under way to broaden the strategic partnership between the two organizations on a range of shared issues, including on peacekeeping and post-conflict peacebuilding, and on raising the world body’s profile as a vital partner for capacity-building with African regional entities.

Citing the “incalculable” human and commercial costs of piracy off the Somali coast, as well as the escalating violence and expanding geographic scope of pirate attacks, the top United Nations legal official today presented the Security Council with detailed options for establishing specialized courts to try suspects in Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa region.

Northern and Southern Sudan today signed an agreement to pull their troops out of the disputed central Abyei region, scene of fierce fighting over the past few weeks, African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki announced as he urged the Security Council to move quickly to ensure implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the two sides.

Recognizing that some members of the Taliban in Afghanistan had rejected the terrorist ideology of Al-Qaida and joined in the Government reconciliation process, the Security Council this afternoon decided to separate the sanctions regime on the two groups, as it created an additional mechanism to manage the new regime and extended existing ones for an additional 18 months.

The African Union will never hide from its responsibilities in helping resolve the conflict in Libya and the “time was overdue to articulate a solution together” that would protect civilians, ensure a democratic transformation and promote lasting peace, the representative of a high-level panel from the organization told the Security Council today.

Welcoming progress made so far in “fully fledged negotiations” between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, the Security Council this morning called on them to intensify the momentum of the talks as it extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) until 15 December 2011.

The Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts helping monitor sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for an additional year, until 12 June 2012. Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1985 (2011) maintaining the current mandate of the group that it established in June 2009.

Urging all States to cooperate fully with the sanctions imposed on Iran over concern about the nature of its nuclear activities, the Security Council today extended for one year the mandate of the Panel of Experts created last year to help monitor the measures’ implementation.

The holding of peaceful, credible elections, protection of civilians, regional stabilization, control of mineral resources and security-sector reform presented the major challenges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the coming year, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning.