Meetings Coverage

Expressing concern over the continuing deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, a senior United Nations political official today urged both sides to embrace a recent proposal to begin indirect talks mediated by the United States.

A month after leaders in Guinea signed a deal to end the political crisis sparked when Government forces killed at least 150 unarmed protesters at a rally last September, the Security Council today welcomed the appointment of the new transitional Government, and urged all Guinean stakeholders to work together in steering the West African nation towards democratic elections by July 2010.

Cautioning against the “persistent scepticism and impatience” that characterized much of the discourse on Iraq, the top United Nations envoy in that country told the Security Council today that preparations for next month’s general elections were nearly complete, and with close to 19 million Iraqis expected to cast their ballots, even those determined to disrupt the poll and derail national reconciliation through violence could not reverse Iraq’s progress.

The United Nations Meeting, having assumed the task of considering the urgency of addressing the permanent status issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, did not hesitate to wade into that difficult terrain, managing to produce in the end some fresh ideas, unbound by the constraints of intergovernmental diplomacy.

While some might take issue with the United States’ past actions in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, few had any doubt that the country, under President Barack Obama, was committed to being an honest broker, its representative said today as the International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace entered its second day.

The Security Council today committed itself to improving its strategies for ending or reconfiguring peacekeeping missions, or for their transition to other kinds of United Nations presences, following a day-long discussion involving top officials of the Organization as well as representatives of regional organizations, troop-contributing countries and the wider membership.

“Confidence begets confidence; stability begets stability; security begets security; peace begets peace,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today in a message to the International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, urging solid support for a resolution of the decades-old conflict.

As it continued its forty-eighth session, the Commission on Social Development this afternoon approved its first ever resolution on promoting social integration in order to eradicate poverty, promote full and productive employment and achieve stable, safe, peaceful harmonious and just societies for all ‑‑ goals set forth in the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and its Programme of Action.

Issues of borders, settlements, refugees, Jerusalem, and water dominated discussion this afternoon in the International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, as experts made compelling cases for why each was the pivotal permanent status issue around which renewed peace negotiations should coalesce.

As the Economic and Social Council continued to fine tune the agenda of its 2010 session, the 54-member body’s President today announced the chairpersons for the thematic clusters examined annually by the Council, and urged delegations to conclude negotiations and present their proposals as soon as possible so that all outstanding matters could be addressed ahead of the substantive session -- set to be held from 28 June to 23 July in New York.