Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the Sulaimani Forum, in Baghdad, today:

Following the earthquakes, as of today, 730 trucks carrying aid provided by seven United Nations agencies crossed from Türkiye to north-west Syria using the three available border crossings.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Baghdad just after midnight on Wednesday, 1 March.

Costa Rica will be the first country in Latin America to have a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, having concluded a Government agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on an ethical approach supportive of human rights.

In Iraq, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair reports that is has launched a humanitarian transition overview to encapsulate critical residual humanitarian needs and help donors and agencies prioritize support in 2023.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today released a regional refugee and resilience plan, which is seeking $5.7 billion to reach 6.8 million Syrian refugees and 6.1 million people in host communities with assistance in 2023.

In its first three months in office, Iraq’s new Government has shown its commitment to tackle the most pressing challenges facing the country, including endemic corruption, poor public service delivery and high levels of unemployment, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today, while underscoring the need of accountability.

Marking peacekeeping’s seventy-fifth anniversary, the Peacekeeping Department is launching a campaign, Peace Begins with Me, which promotes understanding of challenges faced by communities in conflict, demonstrates peacekeeping’s impact and calls for a global movement for peace.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Ruchira Kamboj (India):

Highlighting notable investigative progress into international crimes committed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Da’esh, and cooperation of Iraqi authorities, the head of the United Nations team probing those transgressions called for the adoption of adequate domestic legislation to ensure accountability and enable prosecution of core international crimes, during his semi-annual briefing to the Security Council today.