Security Council

The Security Council today extended until 15 May 2016 the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping operation for the disputed Abyei area bordering Sudan and South Sudan.

The Panel of Experts assisting the Security Council’s so-called 1737 Iran Sanctions Committee found that the country’s attempted procurement of Grade 5 titanium alloy bars had been in violation of resolution 1737 (2006) and subsequent texts, the subsidiary body’s Chair told the 15-member organ today.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) until 31 July 2016, deciding to increase force levels up to 13,000 troops and 2,001 police personnel amid concerns among some members over the potential use of unarmed unmanned aerial vehicles, sanctions and technical support for a hybrid court created to prosecute the perpetrators of mass-atrocity crimes.

Fresh from a constitutional referendum, the Central African Republic was now entering the final and most sensitive phase of its electoral process, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations told the Security Council today, as he called for “uncompromising” rejection of any attempt to obstruct the country’s return to constitutional order.

Participants in the Libyan political dialogue had decided to announce publicly that the Libyan Political Agreement would be signed on 16 December, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in that country told the Security Council today.

Despite a reduction in clashes following the recent ceasefire agreement, the situation in eastern Ukraine remained “tense and volatile”, characterized by widespread human rights violations and a deteriorating humanitarian situation, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, in the first meeting to be held on the matter in six months.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Samantha Power (United States):

On 3 December 2015, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) and the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict held joint consultations featuring a briefing by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, concerning the impact of the conflict on children in the Central African Republic.

On 10 December 2015, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) concerning Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities removed the name below from the Al-Qaida Sanctions List.

On 10 December 2015, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entries below on its Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2161 (2014) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.