Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Fourth Summit of Arab and South American Countries, in Riyadh today:

The “historic” and popular uprising led by Palestinian youth now into its second month had brought the Middle East question back to the forefront of the international conversation, the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine told the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today as it approved four draft texts to be considered by the General Assembly.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the launch of the International Year of Pulses 2016, in Rome today:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Cristina Gallach, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, to the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Chinese Armed Forces’ participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, in New York today:

The Security Council this morning renewed the measures granted to States and regional organizations cooperating with authorities in Somalia in the fight against piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of that country for a further period of 12 months.

With conflicts expanding in the Middle East, thrusting one community after another into extreme insecurity, Palestine refugees remained among the most marginalized due to Israel’s ongoing occupation and the absence of sustainable, predictable funding, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it took up the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Following the Sixth Committee’s (Legal) concluding deliberations on the second cluster of topics from the annual report of the International Law Commission, the Chairman of that body introduced topics from the third and final cluster, before delegates embarked on their debate of those matters.

The Security Council this afternoon was briefed on the situation in Burundi by high-level officials of the United Nations and the African Union, as the violence there, according to speakers, threatened to spiral out of control with risks that the country could slide back into an “all too familiar chaos”.

In support of United Nations development activities, primarily covering 2015, 16 countries pledged approximately $77 million today at a Headquarters event.  The amount represented a dramatic decline in comparison to pledges in 2014 of $560 million.

The Security Council today urged the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and all relevant parties to ensure an environment conducive to the holding of free, fair, credible, inclusive, transparent, peaceful and timely presidential and legislative elections by November 2016.