The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six months, until 31 January 2017, encouraging the country’s Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders to grasp with determination the current opportunity to secure a comprehensive and durable settlement of the crisis dividing their island nation.
On 15 July 2016, members of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2206 (2015) concerning South Sudan were briefed by the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts on South Sudan in connection with the Panel’s work programme.
The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) until 31 July 2017, emphasizing the importance of efforts to support the country’s stabilization, particularly those areas liberated from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh).
The United Nations humanitarian affairs chief called today for the immediate establishment of a weekly, 48-hour pause in fighting so that urgently needed assistance could reach 250,000 people trapped in besieged eastern Aleppo and other hard-to-reach places in Syria.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Koro Bessho (Japan):
The Security Council today authorized Member States to acquire, control, transport, transfer and destroy chemical weapons identified by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Libya to ensure that the country’s stockpile was eliminated in the “soonest and safest” manner.
The Security Council, in a statement issued this morning, urged Lebanon’s leaders to show flexibility and to put stability and the national interest ahead of partisan politics, as it reaffirmed its call for the country’s Parliament to convene urgently to elect a new President.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Koro Bessho (Japan):
On 21 July 2016, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011) enacted the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entry below to its List (the 1988 List) of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2255 (2015) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
A. Individuals
The Security Council must adopt its provisional rules of procedure, regularly consult with troop- and police-contributing countries, restrict veto use and make it easier for the wider United Nations membership to access — and understand — its deliberations, speakers in the 15-member body said today, as they reported mixed reviews on efforts to improve working methods over the last decade.
