Security Council: Meetings Coverage

A holistic approach, combining enhanced regulatory policies and law enforcement mechanisms, greater supply chain transparency, support for counter‑terrorism frameworks, as well as cross-border coordination and information-sharing, is required to clamp down on the illicit trafficking of natural resources and its fuelling of terrorism and violent extremism by armed groups and terrorists in African continent, speakers said during a debate on the issue, one of the signature events of Gabon’s presidency.

The ballistic missile launch of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 4 October was a reckless act and a clear violation of Security Council resolutions, a United Nations senior political and peacebuilding official told the Security Council today, as members demanded that Pyongyang refrain from further provocations, engage in meaningful dialogue and halt its nuclear and missiles programmes.

One year after elections were held, and three years after Iraqis took to the streets to protest a lack of political, economic and social prospects, the continuing absence of a functioning government is hard to justify, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today, while stressing the need for Iraq’s leaders — “all of them” — to engage in dialogue and “pull the country back from the ledge”.

The international community must take steps to address the consequences of the recent leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines, while its causes are being investigated, Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, told the Security Council today, in a meeting requested by the Russian Federation to discuss the incidents.

Meeting today following Russian Federation President Vladimir V. Putin’s proclamation of Moscow’s annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the Security Council rejected a draft resolution intended to condemn the referenda that preceded it.

Despite progress in preparations for its general elections, as well as in its financial governance, the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to face a deteriorating security situation amid ongoing violence by armed groups against civilians, the top United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today ahead of ongoing plans for the mission’s withdrawal.

Syria must change its attitude and cooperate fully with the body charged with verifying its compliance with international law governing chemical weapons, the United Nations disarmament chief told the Security Council today, as speakers diverged over the propriety of that body’s efforts so far.

The Security Council renewed for another year its authorization for Member States to inspect vessels on the high seas off Libya’s coast that they have reasonable grounds to suspect are being used for migrant smuggling and human trafficking from that country, and to seize those vessels that are confirmed as being used for those purposes.

​​​​​​​Welcoming statements by the leaders of Israel and the State of Palestine during the seventy-seventh General Assembly session as a positive sign toward resuming the peace process, speakers in the Security Council today called for those words to be turned into action and progress be delivered on a two-State solution, especially in light continuing settlement activity and violence against civilians.

The so-called “referenda” conducted by de facto authorities in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine have been held during active armed conflict in the country and cannot be called a genuine expression of the popular will, the United Nations senior political and peacebuilding official told the Security Council today, as members condemned the Russian Federation’s “sham referenda”, while others called for a return to peace talks.