"CONFLICT SITUATION"

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet condemned the continued killing and displacement of civilians in north-western Syria despite the announcement of a ceasefire nearly a week ago. UNTV CH

UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said the country had been kept safe from the recent regional crisis as “Yemeni leaders and leaders from the region have deliberately exercised restraint and withheld from acts of provocation.” UNIFEED

Iran’s Ambassador Mahid Takht Ravanchi told the Security Council that “the world is at a crossroads” as “one unhinged regime is frantically clamoring to turn back time,” meaning “more damaging American unilateralism in defiance of international norms and law.” UNIFEED

Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told reporters that his government is “determined not to give up its right and duty as a sovereign state to eliminate the last strongholds of terrorism.” UNIFEED

Children continue to pay a deadly price as conflicts rage around the world, UNICEF said today. Since the start of the decade, the United Nations has verified more than 170,000 grave violations against children in conflict – the equivalent of more than 45 violations every day for the last 10 years. UNICEF

“Deeply concerned” over a recent military escalation in northwest Syria, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities”. UNIFEED

A United Nations spokesperson expressed concern “for the safety and protection of over three million civilians” in Idlib, Syria, noting that “over half of the people have been internally displaced, following ongoing reports of airstrikes in the area.” UNIFEED

United States ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft said Iran is a “bad actor” and stressed that the “maximum pressure campaign” against it must continue, adding that there are “other tools” the US would use against Iran if they continue their “malicious behavior” in the Middle East. UNIFEED

World Food Programme was forced to suspend food delivery to thousands of people in the embattled town of Beni in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, while the UN refugee agency UNHCR is “calling for an urgent restoration of security to allow humanitarian agencies immediate access” to support population at the epicentre of the ongoing Ebola outbreak. UNTV CH

The United States Special Representative for Syria said the launch of the UN-facilitated Constitutional Committee is an “extraordinary diplomatic achievement,” adding that “we have an opportunity with this first step to execute UN resolution 2254 which is now, next month, four years old with very little progress until this launch.” UNIFEED