Middle East

Humanitarian partners in Honduras launched a flash appeal for $69.2 million to help the Government respond to the needs of 450,000 vulnerable people affected by Hurricane Eta, which caused catastrophic damage.  Given the recent new tropical storm Iota, the plan will be updated following assessments of its impact.

Increasing demolitions of Palestinian property — and the announcement of 1,200 new construction projects in East Jerusalem — are now the backdrop for a worrying spike in COVID-19 cases in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the senior United Nations official for Middle East peace told a Security Council videoconference meeting today, while calling upon the parties concerned to cooperate urgently on health and economic matters.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported that the eleventh Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has ended.  WHO thanked partners for their support and congratulated responders and all those who tirelessly tracked cases, provided treatment, engaged communities and vaccinated more than 40,000 people at risk.

Central America is bracing for another potentially catastrophic storm – named Iota – just two weeks after Hurricane Eta made landfall in the region, causing death and destruction.  Ahead of Iota, the United Nations, alongside regional and national partners, is building on preparedness and response efforts for Eta.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Food Coalition, a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral alliance that aims to ensure global food access and increase the resilience of agri-food systems.  The pandemic could add 132 million more people to the world's undernourished in 2020, FAO says, on top of the 690 million hungry people in 2019.

Honduras deposited the fiftieth instrument of ratification to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, resulting in it being entered into force in January 2021.  The Secretary-General said the Treaty is a commitment towards the elimination of nuclear weapons, which is the Organization’s highest disarmament priority.

Warning that COVID-19 “feeds off instability”, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today that intensified international facilitation to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian negotiations must urgently build upon recent efforts at rapprochement in the region.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, as delivered, at the Security Council meeting on the “Maintenance of international peace and security:  comprehensive review of the situation in the Persian Gulf region”, today:

Deeply concerned about long-term conflicts, terrorism and sectarian tension in the Persian Gulf, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, expert briefers and ministerial‑level representatives called for the entire region’s security to be addressed in a coherent manner during a Security Council video teleconference meeting today.

The United Nations human rights office called today for urgent action to address the dire situation of migrants attempting to cross the central Mediterranean Sea in search of safety in Europe, and to tackle the shocking conditions they face in Libya, at sea, and frequently, upon their reception in Europe.