Security Council

The Security Council today renewed the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has supervised the ceasefire between Israel and Syria since 1974, for the next six months until 30 June 2010.

Progress in the coming year should allow the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) to hone its task of helping ensure the future stability of the vast central African country, Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, told the Security Council today.

Urging the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to take all possible measures to complete its work, the Security Council today allowed several judges to serve beyond the expiry of their term of office to enable them to complete work on cases in which they were involved.

Despite raised hopes, the overall political, security and socio-economic situation in the Central African Republic remained “fragile and challenging”, the senior United Nations representative in that country told the Security Council today.

Urging the parties in Cyprus to build on previous progress in negotiations for the reunification of the divided island by intensifying the momentum of talks, the Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping force there, known as UNFICYP, until 15 June 2010.

The outgoing members of the Security Council -– Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya and Viet Nam –- delivered briefings today on the work of subsidiary bodies they had chaired during their two-year tenure.

The Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 751 (1992) concerning Somalia received a letter dated 8 December 2009 from the Coordinator of the Monitoring Group on Somalia informing the Committee that a number of threats and warnings directed at the members of the Monitoring Group (based in Nairobi, Kenya) were made by unknown sources.

Burundi was making commendable progress in emerging from the civil conflict that had ravaged the country for more than a decade, but it required continued international assistance in several critical areas, Youssef Mahmoud, Executive Representative of the Secretary-General, told the Security Council today.

The Security Council committee monitoring the implementation of sanctions imposed on Iran had received reports of further violations of a ban on the export of arms and related materiel to Iran, its Chairman told the Council today.

The following Security Council press statement on the 8 December bombings in Baghdad was read out yesterday by Council President Michel Kafando (Burkina Faso):