S/PV.7630 Security Council

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2016/172, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I should like to draw the attention of the members of the Council to document S/2016/173, which contains the text of a letter dated 22 January 2016 from the Panel of Experts on Yemen established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2140 (2014) addressed to the President of the Security Council. The Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

The draft resolution received 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2266 (2016). I shall now give the floor to the member of the Council who wishes to make a statement following the adoption of the resolution.

Egypt voted in favour of resolution 2266 (2016), which the Council just adopted unanimously. Allow me to take this opportunity to briefly reiterate the Egyptian Government’s position with regard to sanctions regimes in general — as previously stated during our statement delivered at the Council’s open debate (see S/PV.7620 ) on general issues related to sanctions held on 11 February — as well as Egypt’s position with regard to the ongoing crisis in Yemen. First, on the work of Panels of Experts, it is imperative that such panels operate within the mandate specified by the Security Council resolutions that established them, so as to preserve the resolutions’ credibility and that of the Council itself. Secondly, also with regard to the work of the panels, Egypt reiterates that it is vital that their final reports maintain objectivity and impartiality, and for those reports to rely exclusively on credible sources. We wish to highlight paragraph 11 of the resolution adopted today, which recalls the requirement I just mentioned. We reiterate the importance of strictly adhering to that in order, once again, to maintain the Council’s credibility as well as the credibility of sanctions regimes. Thirdly, as to the crisis in Yemen, we reaffirm Egypt’s position calling for a political settlement to the crisis, in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions, especially resolution 2216 (2015). Only a political settlement will restore stability to Yemen and complement efforts to combat terrorism in that country in the Middle East region as a whole