Security Council

Intense diplomatic activity to rekindle the peace process and achieve a two-State solution had reached a “decisive point” as Israelis and Palestinians had agreed, in principle, to return to the negotiating table, said the top United Nations Middle East official today during an open debate of the Security Council.

On 22 July 2013, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) concerning Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities removed the name of the individual below from the Al-Qaida Sanctions List after concluding its consideration of a delisting request submitted through the Office of the Ombudsperson established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1904 (2009), and after considering the Comprehensive Report of the Ombudsperson on this delisting request.

On 19 July 2013, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) approved the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entry below on its Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2083 (2012) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

Despite fiscal woes that threatened to derail hard-won stability gains, Burundi had made significant strides this year in political reform and in preparing for peaceful, free and fair elections in 2015, the United Nations senior official in that country told the Security Council this morning.

On 16 July 2013, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1521 (2003) concerning Liberia approved the inclusion of additional information concerning Messrs. Ibrahim Bah and Slobodan Tešic (travel ban list). The additional information is reflected in bold text below.

While Côte d’Ivoire was on the right path to recovery, it was still plagued by violence and deep political divisions, requiring continued international support as it geared up for a new electoral cycle in 2015, the head of United Nations peacekeeping said today in a briefing to the Security Council.

Having paid the price for telling the truth, “they call me a dead man walking”, Mustafa Haji Abdinur, an Agence France-Presse reporter in Somalia told today’s Security Council open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, including journalists.

Beset by violence in neighbouring Syria and a political stalemate at home, Iraq had reached a “crucial phase” from where it could either continue to deepen its democratic roots or surrender to increased instability, the head of the United Nations mission in that country said today, as he delivered his final briefing to the Security Council in that capacity.

Reaffirming its concern at the alarming situation in Africa’s Sahel region, the Security Council today strongly condemned human rights abuses and violence committed against civilians there by terrorist and other extremist groups, vowing to address the complex security and political challenges that were linked to humanitarian and developmental issues as well as to climatic and ecological changes.

The world was not only watching the destruction of a country, but also that of a people, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said today of the crisis in Syria, stressing in a briefing to the Security Council that the statistics “hide an unfolding humanitarian tragedy”.