Security Council: Meetings Coverage

The situation in Kosovo remained precarious and warranted the Security Council’s attention and leadership, Farid Zarif, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said today.

Just one month since the end of serious fighting, the Libyans had shown great initiative and responsibility in a post-conflict context “very different from any other”, the top United Nations representative for Libya told the Security Council today.

Transnational crime, pandemics, and climate change were three defining challenges, and as the nature of such threats continued to evolve, the Security Council — so central to our ability to keep the peace — must also keep pace, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Council today as it addressed new challenges to international peace and security and conflict prevention.

Today, the Security Council, meeting concurrently with, but independently from, the General Assembly, once again failed in three rounds of balloting to elect a fifth Judge to the International Court of Justice.

The current calm and stability were paving a smooth road ahead to the “democracy fest” anticipated for Timor-Leste with next year’s landmark elections, the United Nations top representative for that country told the Security Council today, introducing the Secretary-General’s latest report on recent developments.

Condemning and deploring all acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels in the waters off the coast of Somalia, the Security Council today extended for 12 months its authorizations granted to States and regional organizations cooperating with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in the fight against such acts.

“Without a credible path forward, accompanied by more far-reaching steps on the ground,” Robert Serry, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today, “the viability of the Palestinian Authority and its State-building agenda — and, I fear, of the two-State solution itself — cannot be taken for granted”.

Calling on political leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina to form a new Council of Ministers in the wake of the 3 October 2010 elections, to refrain from divisive rhetoric and to make further concrete and tangible progress towards European Union integration, the Security Council today authorized the European Union multinational stabilization force (EUFOR ALTHEA) for another year, until 15 November 2012.

It was clear that there were huge expectations for South Sudan’s transition into a stable democracy, but even with the best of intentions on the part of its leadership, the Government would need all of the support it could get, Hilde Johnson, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country, told the Security Council today.

The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina told the Security Council today that, given what he saw in that country, there was still a clear need for his Office to remain in place, and given the continued negative trends and political instability, it was essential for EUFOR (European Union multinational stabilization force), with a Chapter VII executive mandate, to also remain in place.