Forging greater ties between the United Nations and the League of Arab States to address Middle East turmoil and working closely with their new Joint Special Representative on the crisis in Syria would be among the top priorities of the Security Council in September, the Permanent Representative of Germany, whose delegation holds the Council’s rotating presidency for this month, said today.

“Enough is enough,” said Dieudonné Mbaya Tshiakany, National Moderator of l’Eglise du Christ au Congo, referring to the conflicts that had killed 6 million Congolese, at a Headquarters press conference, entitled "Peace is still possible within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda".

The Secretary-General has appointed James Rawley of the United States as Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. Mr. Rawley will also serve as UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Mokhtar Lamani of Canada has been appointed as Head of the Office of the UN-League of Arab States Joint Special Representative for Syria in Damascus. He brings a wealth of experience, having held a wide range of diplomatic positions, most notably as (what was then) the Organization of the Islamic Conference representative in New York.

The Secretary-General is in Geneva today, where he addressed the Human Rights Council this morning. He commended the 47-member body for its quick action in responding to the crisis in Syria and said he is deeply troubled by the apparent choice of both sides to pursue a solution through force rather than dialogue.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of the Congo has expressed his deep concern over reports of further massacres of civilians in North Kivu, in the east. The killings are the latest in a series of violent attacks by armed groups systematically targeting the civilian population.

In a statement issued earlier today, the Secretary-General congratulated Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on his selection as President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, following the vote of the New Federal Parliament in Mogadishu yesterday. The selection of the new President ends the eight-year political transition.

Anybody in the room on 13 December 2006 when the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted had felt the tremendous spirit behind the movement and understood that a “key tool to transform our societies” had joined the ranks of international human rights instruments, correspondents were told today as the Fifth Session of the Conference of States Parties to the treaty convened at Headquarters.

The Security Council this morning was briefed on Libya by the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, who condemned in the strongest terms the attack on the United States diplomatic presence in Benghazi yesterday and extended condolences to the families of those killed.

This morning, the Secretary-General participated in a General Assembly meeting on mediation and conflict resolution where he presented to Member States his most recent report on the subject and the United Nations Guidance for Effective Mediation. He said he was pleased to report that the United Nations was making real progress.