I thank Deputy Secretary-General Mohammed and Acting Special Representative Dieng for their powerful briefings this morning. We are also honoured by Ms. Jaf’s presence in the Security Council today, and we deeply appreciate her moving and inspirational testimony on behalf of the women, men, girls an…
We welcome the Security Council’s decision today to extend for another six months the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA). That was the right decision. UNISFA provides critical security to the Abyei Area and helps communities that live and travel through Abyei to …
The international community has made notable progress in degrading terrorist groups worldwide, with recent significant gains in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). But the Security Council must stay vigilant to counter the dynamic threat that ISIS and other terroris…
The United States thanks the Governments of France and Italy for taking the initiative to rally the international community to protect our world’s common heritage from being used to further armed conflicts.
Over the past two decades, we have seen damage to and destruction of our shared cultural her…
As others have done before me, I want to express our heartfelt condolences to our close friends in the United Kingdom in connection with the terrorist attack yesterday in London. We pledge our full cooperation and support in responding to the attack and in bringing those responsible to justice.
I t…
I thank President Mogae and Ms. Sunday for their briefings.
We are outraged by the events unfolding in South Sudan, especially the widespread violence, ongoing atrocities and obstruction of humanitarian access. Rather than committing to the ceasefire called for in the 2015 peace agreement endorsed …
On behalf of the United States as host country, I want to convey our most sincere condolences to Mrs. Irina Churkina and the Churkin family on the untimely passing of
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin. We also extend our deep sympathy to our colleagues at the Russian Mission on the loss of one of their nat…
I thank President Touadéra for briefing us this afternoon here in the Security Council and for his tireless efforts to advance peace and development in the Central African Republic. We know the challenges he faces are many, but we know also that he has already consolidated gains. We stand ready to w…
I thank Special Representative of the Secretary-General Yamamoto for his briefing and for the work of the team of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in supporting the restoration of peace, reconciliation and development in Afghanistan.
I also thank Ambassador Saikal and Ms…
I thank Under-Secretary-General O’Brien, whose briefing was clearly not just a set of business-as-usual remarks. Mr. O’Brien just described what could soon become the most serious food-security emergency in the modern era, unless States members of the United Nations act now to stop it.
The United N…
We welcome the new Deputy Secretary-General. We look forward to working with her.
The stories and courage of the women, men and youths we met during our trip are indelibly etched in our minds and will continue to inspire all of us as we work to address the urgent challenges of the people of the Lak…
I thank Foreign Minster Kurz for his briefing on the planned activities under the Austrian chairmanship.
The track record of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) clearly demonstrates the unique and significant role that that organization plays in Europe. The United States …
I thank the Special Coordinator for the Middle East, Mr. Mladenov, for briefing the Council today, and him and his Office for their tireless efforts to keep the Council informed while working with all sides.
Let me begin by reiterating in the strongest possible terms the United States condemnation …
Yesterday, we learned from our Russian colleagues about a
proposed arrangement that Russia and Turkey had concluded to introduce a cessation of hostilities and restart intra-Syrian discussions. Their goals are laudable and we welcome all efforts to end the violence in Syria and strongly support a n…
Today’s adoption of a short-term extension of the processes and escrow accounts related to winding up the oil-for-food programme brings us a step closer to closing the book on that programme. The Government of Iraq and the United Nations requested this temporary extension to tie up a few outstanding…
I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and for his efforts throughout his tenure to secure peace and protect civilians in the Middle East and throughout the world.
With regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the trends are indeed discouraging, which is why it is so critical that we all…
I would like to express our appreciation to Spain for holding today’s important debate on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and non-State actors. We welcome today’s unanimous adoption of resolution 2325 (2016), which we had the privilege to co-sponsor. We extend our particular …
Today’s vote to renew the mandate of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) should be sending an unambiguous message to the Libyan people that their efforts in forging a path to peace and stability are undertaken with the broad support of the international community and that the tirele…
As the origin of the Syrian crisis has been raised by others who just took the floor, in March 2011 protests against Bashar Al-Assad began in Syria. He responded with brutal violence, which dramatically escalated the situation, and then relied upon others to support him. The United Nations responded…
Abu Jaafar, a coroner in eastern Aleppo, recently told a reporter,
“You know, it is not our job to bury people, but if we do not, no one else will. Where we used to bury one man, we now lay down entire families. We dig and we dig; it never ends”.
We dig and we dig; it never ends. Today we had a ch…
