Middle East

The Security Council today renewed the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping operation that monitors the ceasefire between Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan region for an additional six months ending on 31 December.

Today, in a message to a forum being held by the Palestinian Rights Committee to mark 50 years of occupation, the Secretary-General said it was time to return to direct negotiations and resolve all final status issues on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions, agreements and international law.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Six-Day War, achieving a negotiated two-State outcome was the only way to lay the foundations for an enduring peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Security Council heard today, as it held its regular briefing on the situation in the Middle East.

Over the weekend, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process condemned the shooting and stabbing attack by Palestinian assailants in the vicinity of the Old City of Jerusalem.  He said that such terrorist acts must be condemned by all.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Sacha Sergio Llorentty Solíz (Bolivia):

The World Food Programme (WFP) is scaling up emergency operations to help people urgently in need of help in Yemen, which is on the brink of famine.  In Syria, WFP delivered food this week to seven hard-to-reach areas in Raqqa and Deir, where regular aid service had been suspended for over three years due to conflict.

Belligerents in eastern Ukraine have repeatedly failed to implement ceasefire agreements, allowing hostilities to claim more lives as the fighting entered its fourth year, the latest human rights report says.  It recorded 36 deaths and 157 injuries, a rise of nearly 50 per cent over the previous reporting period.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The Secretary-General is encouraged by progress in the implementation of the peace accord in Colombia, especially the recent delivery to the United Nations Mission of the first 30 per cent of the arms of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People's Army (FARC-EP).

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres: