United Nations

‘Status quo not viable option’ in Jerusalem, UN political chief tells Security Council

Ongoing tensions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank cannot be separated from the larger reality that remains unresolved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today. Briefing the Security Council on the situation in Jerusalem, Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, acknowledged that recent heightened tensions over unilateral actions, provocations and access restrictions at holy sites in Jerusalem are contributing to a volatile situation, and stressed that further delay in negotiations and the pursuit of peace would only serve to deepen divisions and further exacerbate the conflict. “The status quo is not a viable option,” Mr.

Report: Palestinians accept US request to delay Security Council bid for statehood

The London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority has agreed to delay by two months its plan to seek a Security Council resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines within three years. The paper quoted Palestinian sources in Ramallah as saying that the PA leadership will give US Secretary of State John Kerry a two-month window to present his own plan for peace. The sources said that the PA leadership was nevertheless determined to proceed with the Security Council bid.

Palestinians: We have 7 of 9 Security Council votes needed to force ballot on resolution to end ‘occupation’

A senior Palestinian official said Monday that the Palestinian Authority has mustered the support of seven of nine UN Security Council members needed to bring to a vote its resolution that would force an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by November 2016. Speaking in an interview with the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency, Sha’ath said, “We are at the stage of lobbying within the Security Council to get nine or more votes.” Sha’ath said that the PA was facing opposition to the move from the US, who was not only threatening to veto the resolution should it be brought to a vote, but also was urging other Security Council members to oppose the resolution and push back a vote on the measure until after US midterm elections in November.

UN Ebola chief raises ‘nightmare’ prospect that virus could mutate and become airborne – making it much more infectious

The longer the Ebola epidemic continues infecting people unabated the higher the chances it will mutate and become airborne, the UN’s Ebola response chief has warned. Anthony Banbury, the Secretary General’s Special Representative, has said there is a ‘nightmare’ prospect the deadly disease will become airborne if it continues infecting new hosts. His comments come as organisations battling the crisis in West Africa warned that the international community has just four weeks to stop it before it spirals ‘completely out of control’.

U.N. to dump flood of Muslim refugees in the United States

Displaced Syrians will likely make up the next big wave of Muslim refugees coming to America. Since the early 1990s, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees has selected 200,000 to 250,000 refugees from Islamic countries to be resettled in the United States. Most of them have come from Somalia and Iraq.

Abbas to ask UN to set timetable for Palestinian state along 1967 lines

Palestinian officials have said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is planning to ask the UN to set a timetable for the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines, with its capital in East Jerusalem. The official told the Associated Press that Abbas would present his proposal as part of a “day after” plan following the end of the current war in the Gaza Strip. According to the Qatari News Agency, an agreement over the matter was reached in Abbas’ meeting with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Hamas’ political chief Khaled Meshal, in Doha on Friday.

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