As the Security Council meeting of 18 November concluded, regional delegations, condemning the horrific aggression being wrought upon the Palestinian people by Israel, along with that country’s attacks against Lebanon, urged the 15‑nation organ to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza before famine consumes it and the dangerously escalating violence engulfs the entire Middle East.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the goal of a zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East is “becoming more urgent by the day,” with “regional conflicts raging and tensions reaching a boiling point”.
The Security Council, meeting once again amid the 19-month brutal war raging in Sudan that has led to the world’s largest displacement crisis, rejected today a draft resolution intended to bolster measures to protect civilians and increase humanitarian aid access.
Reckoning with recent reports of the deployment of foreign troops and the authorization to use long-range weapons to strike across borders, speakers in the Security Council today discussed how best to achieve peace in Ukraine as civilians there ready themselves to face a third winter under increasingly harsh conditions.
“The current conditions are among the worst we’ve seen during the entire war and are not set to improve,” Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, warned the Security Council during a meeting on ending the war in Gaza and Lebanon and securing durable peace in the Middle East, as Member States echoed the need for a ceasefire and voiced concern over developments that jeopardize the two-State solution.
The General Assembly today adopted six draft resolutions underscoring the imperatives of continued cooperation between the United Nations and regional and other organizations. Delegates also raised specific concerns on matters capable of advancing or jeopardizing these partnerships.
Israel’s methods of war align with the characteristics of genocide, the Chair of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message to the fifth session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction, in New York today:
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural) approved nine draft resolutions today, including texts on trafficking in women and girls, forced marriage, extreme poverty and the moratorium on the death penalty.
Citing an “apocalyptic” situation in northern Gaza, delegates in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today reaffirmed their funding commitments and support for UNRWA’s life-saving work and urged the Israeli Knesset to stop its attempts to dismantle the Agency, as that could fuel “hopelessness and radicalization”, and lead to a humanitarian catastrophe.
