Security Council: Meetings Coverage

Taking up the situation in the Middle East, speakers in today’s Security Council debate welcomed the new international push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although concern over the lack of movement since the adoption of resolution 1860 (2009) more than six months ago prompted some to call for more decisive Council action.

Five years after the Security Council had placed the situation in Sudan’s war‑ravaged western Darfur region on its agenda, the top United Nations peacekeeping official today expressed his deep frustration that everyone -- the Government, the rebel movements and the international community –- had failed to muster the political will to address the crisis “in all its heart-wrenching complexity”.

Describing a “mixed picture of worrying signs amid solid progress”, the top United Nations envoy in Côte d’Ivoire today informed the Security Council that, even though the long-postponed presidential election in the divided West African country was set for 29 November, the panel organizing the poll was struggling to overcome bureaucratic hurdles, and the linked reunification process was not moving forward as planned.

The Security Council today extended through January 2010 the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), noting Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s assessment that the operation would be well placed to assist in the management of arms and armed personnel in line with the 25 June 2008 Agreement between political parties in the South Asian country.

The Security Council today called for more rapid and pointed efforts to build peace in the period immediately after strife-torn countries emerged from armed conflict, following a day-long open debate in which more than 40 speakers delivered statements.

Expressing deep sympathy and condolences to the victims, their families and the Government of Indonesia, the Security Council this afternoon condemned in the strongest terms the 17 July heinous terrorist attacks in Jakarta.

The trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor was critical to preserving the fragile peace and stability of West Africa, the President of the Special Court for Sierra Leone told the Security Council this morning. Briefing the Council on the Special Court’s activities, Judge Renate Winter said that it was now hearing Mr. Taylor’s defence, which had started this week.

Welcoming the Afghan-led preparations for upcoming presidential and provincial council elections, the Security Council stressed this morning that it was important that they be free, fair, transparent, credible, secure and inclusive.

The refusal by Myanmar’s senior leadership to allow Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not only a deep disappointment, but also a major lost opportunity for the country, he told the Security Council today. Briefing the Council on his recent visit to Myanmar, he said that allowing such a meeting would have sent a constructive, conciliatory signal inside the country and abroad.

While welcoming West Africa’s positive strides in post-conflict recovery, peacebuilding and governance today, the Security Council noted with “deep concern” the fragile nature of those achievements, and stressed the importance of adopting a comprehensive strategy to tackle a raft of emerging threats in the subregion.