Syria

On 31 December 2022, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Maritime Task Force assisted the Lebanese Armed Forces-Navy with a search-and-rescue operation relating to a boat in distress off the northern coast, between Beirut and Tripoli.

Syria remains desperately in need of cross-border and cross-line humanitarian aid, as well as political confidence-building measures, the Security Council heard today from senior United Nations officials.

In Colombia, the United Nations team has received over $17 million for the multi-donor fund aiding the country’s “Total Peace” initiative, securing 76 per cent of the Fund’s 2023 investment needs to support transitional justice, rural development, reintegration of ex-combatants and security.

Syria continues to avoid full cooperation with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to urgently address information missing from its submitted declarations, including providing details on the unauthorized movement of two cylinders related to the 2018 chemical weapon incident in Douma, the top United Nations official for disarmament told the Security Council today.

The ninth United Nations inter-agency cross-line convoy of 16 trucks, carrying 482 metric tons of food and other humanitarian supplies, crossed from Aleppo into Sarmada in north-west Syria. Supplies included medicines, nutrition items, water, sanitation and hygiene items, reproductive health kits, and education materials.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is in West Java, Indonesia, following the earthquake that struck Monday, and has distributed 350 customized kits to women, adolescents and people living with HIV. Deployed midwives to West Java have also established a reproductive health centre, where three babies have been born so far.

Worrying and dangerous developments in Syria risk triggering a military escalation that would threaten nearly three years of relative calm, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria told the Security Council today, calling on all parties to de-escalate immediately and to focus on the stalled political process instead.

In Sri Lanka, the United Nations team’s revised Humanitarian Needs and Priorities Plan aims to help 3.4 million people, with immediate food assistance for 2.4 million food-insecure people and support 1.5 million people in agriculture and fishing to revive severely disrupted food systems.

Syria must fully and urgently cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to close all outstanding issues regarding its chemical weapons declarations, the detection of a Schedule 2 chemical at the Barzah facilities of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre in November 2018, and the unauthorized movement of the two cylinders related to the chemical weapon incident in Douma in April 2018, the United Nations disarmament chief told the Security Council today.

Syria must respond urgently to complete all outstanding issues on the elimination of its chemical weapons programme in line with international law, the United Nations disarmament chief told the Security Council today, citing the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Technical Secretariat’s evaluation that the country’s declarations still have not advanced.