S/PV.3589 Security Council

On behalf of the members of the Security Council, I should like to express profound shock and sorrow at the assassination on Saturday, 4 November 1995, of the Prime Minister of Israel, His Excellency Mr. Yitzhak Rabin. Prime Minister Rabin has paid the ultimate price for peace and will be greatly missed by his people and by the international community. I request the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations to convey to the Government and people of Israel and to the bereaved family the Council’s profound condolences. I now invite the members of the Council to rise and observe a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of the late Prime Minister of Israel. The members of the Council observed a minute of silence. Expression of thanks to the retiring President

As this is the first meeting of the Security Council for the month of November, I should like to take this opportunity to pay tribute, on behalf of the Council, to His Excellency Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, for his service as President of the Security Council for the month of October 1995. I am sure I speak for all members of the Security Council in expressing deep appreciation to Ambassador Gambari for the great diplomatic skill and unfailing courtesy with which he conducted the Council’s business last month. Adoption of the agenda The agenda was adopted. The situation in Tajikistan and along the Tajik-Afghan border

I should like to inform the Council that I have received a letter from the representative of Tajikistan in which he requests to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the Council’s agenda. In There being no objection, it is so decided.

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. The Council is meeting in accordance with the understanding reached in its prior consultations. Following consultations among the members of the Security Council, I have been authorized to make the following statement on behalf of the Council: “The Security Council welcomes the planned convening of the continual round of Inter-Tajik talks in Ashgabad. It commends the efforts of the President of Turkmenistan in this regard. “The Security Council calls upon the Tajik parties to begin as a matter of urgency this round of talks with the aim of concluding a general agreement in accordance with the provisions of the Protocol on the fundamental principles for establishing peace and national accord in Tajikistan signed by the President of the Republic of Tajikistan and the leader of the Tajik opposition on 17 August 1995 (S/1995/720, annex). “The Security Council expresses the hope that the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy will be able to resume promptly his efforts with regard to the preparation of the forthcoming round of talks. The Council reaffirms its full support for the activities of the Special Envoy. “The Security Council urges the Tajik parties to comply strictly with the obligations assumed under the Agreement on a Temporary Cease-Fire and the Cessation of Other Hostile Acts on the Tajik-Afghan Border and within the Country signed in Teheran on 17 September 1994 (S/1994/1102, annex I). The Council expresses the hope that the convening of the talks will contribute to a lessening of tensions along the Tajik-Afghan border and inside Tajikistan. This statement will be issued as a document of the Security Council under the symbol S/PRST/1995/54. The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on the agenda.