Security Council

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Eugène-Richard Gasana (Rwanda):

While welcoming the announcement by Mali’s interim Government that it would organize presidential elections by the end of July 2013, the United Nations top political official told the Security Council today that nearly one year after a military coup threw the country into turmoil, “concerted, broad-based” measures were needed to tackle its serious and closely linked challenges.

Maintaining peace and security, preventing conflict and ending sexual violence against women in Africa would be among the Security Council’s top priorities in April, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations said at Headquarters today.

The Security Council today approved the creation of its first-ever “offensive” combat force, intended to carry out targeted operations to “neutralize and disarm” the notorious 23 March Movement (M23), as well as other Congolese rebels and foreign armed groups in strife-riven eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Russian Federation’s March presidency of the Security Council had seen the 15-member organ take up a “very rich” programme of work, Permanent Representative Vitaly I. Churkin said today, highlighting the adoption of six resolutions, the issuance of eight press statements and discussions on diverse security situations around the world, from Mali and South Sudan to the Middle East and Kosovo.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Vitaly Churkin (Russian Federation):

Acting on the recommendations of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council today decided that the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) would fully draw down its operations by 31 March 2014, wrapping up the latest phase of the Organization’s decades-long engagement with the West African country.

With the United Nations continuing the phased drawdown of its peacekeeping operations in Liberia, the Organization’s top official there briefed the Security Council today and underscored the importance of moving swiftly to address the social inequality, political infighting and other historic — and current — fissures that had led to decades of war and which still ran deep.

Following the visit by United States President Barak Obama to the Middle East last week, there was now an opening to develop a “serious and substantial” political initiative to achieve the negotiated two-State solution between Israelis and Palestinians that would best serve the interests, rights and aspirations of both sides, a top United Nations envoy told the Security Council today.

The following press statement was issued today by Security Council President Vitaly Churkin (Russian Federation):