Security Council: Meetings Coverage

Deadly Israeli-Palestinian clashes, along with the Palestinian reconciliation and state-building efforts, showed that the conflict between the two sides was not immune to the political changes sweeping across the Arab world, a top United Nations official told the Security Council today. “One way or another, change will come to it too,” said Robert Serry, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General.

Pointing to progress in consolidating peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Security Council stressed today that a strong partnership between the United Nations and the Congolese Government was needed for the next phase of the country’s emergence from civil war.

Welcoming Burundi’s “remarkable transition” towards democracy, national dialogue and good governance, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today that the Burundian Government’s peace-consolidation efforts should be matched by the international community’s commitment to help overcome the country’s “daunting” remaining socio-economic challenges.

The Security Council this morning extended the Panel of Experts that monitors the arms embargo and sanctions on those who impede peace in Sudan, particularly in the violence-wracked Darfur region, until 19 February 2012.

Despite the death of Osama bin Laden, the Security Council’s three counter-terrorism committees must continue to strengthen their efforts through enhanced effectiveness and cooperation with Member States, speakers said today during the regular six-month briefings by the Chairpersons of the subsidiary bodies. Peter Wittig (Germany), Chair of the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 (1999) on Al-Qaida and the Taliban, said Bin Laden’s death was clearly a turning point.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) until 31 July 2011, also authorizing the Secretary-General to extend until 30 June 2011 the temporary redeployment of equipment from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to UNOCI.

Welcoming the recent start of a much-awaited dialogue between officials in Pristina and Belgrade, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General told the Security Council today that Kosovo had emerged from a constitutional crisis and appeared to be headed towards a period of increased political stability.

The next generation of United Nations peacebuilding must strengthen national ownership of peace processes, broaden the pool of international expertise and make United Nations support more appropriate, timely and effective, the Security Council heard today as it held a debate on post-conflict civilian capacity.

Noting that the transitional period in Somalia would end in August, the Security Council today urged the East African nation’s Transitional Federal Institutions to reach agreement as soon as possible on the holding of elections for the President and the Speaker of Parliament. In a statement read out by Gérard Araud (France), its President for May, the Council expressed concern about the discord between the Institutions and its impact on the country’s political processes and security situation.

The unprecedented crises in the Middle East and parts of North and sub-Saharan Africa over the last six months drove home the need for the Security Council to implement its five resolutions intended to protect civilians trapped in the crossfire of armed conflict, the top United Nations humanitarian official said today.