Security Council

Echoing the Secretary-General’s view that a solution to the situation in Cyprus was “well within reach”, the Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force there, known as UNFICYP, for a further six months, until 15 December 2010.

An integrated approach to stability in Sudan, linking peace in Darfur to preparations for the January referendum on the future of Southern Sudan, was presented to the Security Council by officials of the United Nations and the African Union this morning.

The arrest of two prominent Sudanese citizens indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity was crucial for bringing peace to Darfur and ending impunity, Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the Security Council today.

The following Security Council press statement regarding the mediation efforts by Qatar to resolve the border dispute between Djibouti and Eritrea was read out today by Council President Claude Heller (Mexico):

Expressing deep concern about Iran’s lack of compliance with its previous resolutions on ensuring the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme, the Security Council imposed additional sanctions on the country today, expanding an arms embargo and tightening restrictions on financial and shipping enterprises related to “proliferation-sensitive activities”.

The Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts monitoring sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea until 12 June 2011. Acting under the binding Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1928 (2010) maintaining the current mandate of the group that it established on 12 June 2009, when the body also condemned a nuclear weapons test conducted by the east Asian country and toughened the sanctions regime on it.

The Security Council Sanctions Committee established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1267 (1999) welcomes the recent appointment by the Secretary-General of Judge Kimberly Prost (Canada) to serve as Ombudsperson, pursuant to Security Council resolution 1904 (2009).

Concerned by the “new challenges and threats” the Government and people of Haiti faced in the aftermath of the devastating 12 January earthquake, the Security Council today authorized deployment of further 680 police to the United Nations peacekeeping mission there, in addition to the boosted force levels provided in January chiefly to assist Haitian authorities throughout the coming electoral period and subsequent transfer of power early next year.

On 4 June 2010, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the deletion (de-listing) of the entry specified below from its Consolidated List. The Committee approved this de-listing following its review of the name, as called for in paragraph 25 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008). The assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1904 (2009) therefore no longer apply to the following individual:

After yet another attempt to organize national elections in Côte d’Ivoire had come up short, the main Ivorian political factions were sticking to their “core interests”, the top United Nations official there told the Security Council today, as he warned that competing priorities over the oft-postponed ballot, reunification and citizen identification had left the divided country at a “complex […] delicate impasse”.