Initial findings from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission in Syria had found evidence of sulfur mustard in samples taken from an alleged attack on 16 September 2016, while analysis of samples collected in relation to an alleged April incident in Khan Shaykhoun had revealed exposure to sarin or a sarin-like substance, the United Nations disarmament chief reported today.
With the liberation of Mosul imminent, the international community must maintain a dual focus on defeating the remaining Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) forces in Iraq, and on working towards post-conflict security and reconstruction, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative said in a briefing to the Security Council today.
Small but significant steps were being made in political efforts to end the conflict in Syria on the heels of an agreement on creating de-escalation zones in that country, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy told the Security Council today, while warning of persistent fighting in some areas and the threat still posed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh).
The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the most recent ballistic missile launch conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 21 May 2017. The members of the Security Council expressed their utmost concern over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s highly destabilizing behaviour and flagrant and provocative defiance of the Security Council by conducting this ballistic missile launch in violation of its international obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013), 2270 (2016) and 2321 (2016).
While Bosnia and Herzegovina was largely stable and had made considerable political strides, its continued progress must not be taken for granted, the senior United Nations official in the country warned the Security Council today, while expressing concern over divisive trends that risked reopening the Federation’s “wounds of the past”.
Somalia’s peaceful election of a new President had opened a unique opportunity to surmount entrenched insecurity, political and humanitarian challenges and create a functional State in the coming four years, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today.
On 17 May 2017, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) concerning the Central African Republic approved the following individual as subject to the measures imposed by paragraphs 5 and 12 of resolution 2339 (2017):
Despite numerous challenges, the parties to Colombia’s six-month-old peace agreement were committed to “stay the course” in order to preserve the impressive gains already made, the co-leads of the Security Council’s recent mission to that country said this afternoon as they recapped their visit.
The situation in Kosovo was “generally stable” although fluctuating tensions remained in the Balkans region, the senior United Nations official there told the Security Council today.
The Security Council today decided to extend until 15 November 2017 the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force for Abyei (UNISFA) — including its tasks in support of the disputed territory’s Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism — while warning that that support would be withdrawn unless Sudan and South Sudan complied fully with their obligations.
