Security Council

The Peacebuilding Commission was the central intergovernmental body mandated with ensuring that the United Nations led in coordinating international efforts to help alleviate the suffering of populations in post-conflict situations, the Commission’s Chairman, Heraldo Muñoz of Chile told the Security Council today.

International partners were seeking a way out of “a deep and worrying impasse” in the political quest for a Middle East peace as security and economic efforts continued on the ground, Haile Menkerios, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told the Security Council in a briefing this morning.

Despite a political impasse in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the country was at a crossroads in its bid for Euro-Atlantic integration and required continued international support for that effort, Valentin Inzko, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, told the Security Council today.

On 17 November 2009, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entry below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia was not only a criminal activity, but it was, first of all, a very successful business, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Political Office there told the Security Council today.

The Security Council this morning authorized for another year, until 18 November 2010, the European Union Stabilization Force (EUFOR) mandated to ensure continued compliance with the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995.

The following press statement on the Lord’s Resistance Army was issued today by Council President Thomas Mayr-Harting (Austria):

The following Security Council press statement on Somalia was read out today by Council President Thomas Mayr-Harting ( Austria):

Expressing its strong endorsement of continuing assistance by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) in preparations for upcoming elections, the Security Council this morning welcomed the parliamentary agreement which would allow the polls to take place in January 2010.

Terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to non-State actors continued to be a threat to international peace and security, and cooperation was a crucial element in the efforts to counter that threat, Ranko Vilovic ( Croatia) told the Security Council today.