Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Martha Pobee told the Security Council that the political environment in Abyei has remained “constrained by the conflicts in the Sudan and instability in South Sudan,” limiting progress by the two countries “towards resolving their disputes over the management of the Abyei territory and its final status.”

Pobee noted that the security environment “deteriorated over the past six months, mostly due to criminality, weapons proliferation and the presence of unauthorised armed actors, which have combined to create a complex and volatile threat environment.”

The Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), she said, “recorded 196 security incidents, with 58 fatalities and 69 injuries, marking a significant increase from the previous reporting period.”

Pobee noted that the mission continues to conduct robust patrols and rapid response operations, while also supporting weapons disposal, mine action and humanitarian access, adding that sustained engagement by the Council will remain essential to uphold the demilitarized status of Abyei and advance a durable political solution.

She said, “the immediate withdrawal of all unauthorised forces, including the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces and the Rapid Support Forces from the Abyei area, remains essential.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuqxeAPqkko

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Iranian Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani told reporters in New York that “the only viable solution in the Strait of Hormuz is a permanent end to the war, the lifting of maritime blockade, and the restoration of normal passage,” and said a Security Council draft resolution tabled by the United States and Bahrain is “flawed, politically motivated” and drafted “under the pretext of freedom of navigation to advance its political agenda and legitimize unlawful actions, not to resolve the crisis.”

Iravani said, “the draft falsely accused Iran of violating the ceasefire of 8th April, while deliberately concealing material facts. It also attributes serious violations to Iran, including attacks on vessels and placement of sea mines without presenting credible and verified evidence.”

He said the text “ignores the unlawful maritime blockade imposed by the United States, as well as attacks on the seizure of Iranian vessels,” constituting “a material breach of the ceasefire, violation of the prohibition on the sea of force, and serious infringement of freedom of navigation.”

The Iranian Ambassador said, “the claim that the current situation constitutes a threat to international peace and security has no objective or credible basis” and the invocation of chapter seven of the UN Charter “is wholly unjustified, disproportionate and based on politically motivated allegation and it serves further military objectives.”

If adopted, he said, the resolution would “seriously damage the credibility and impartiality of the Security Council, it would politicize the Council’s enforcement power and establish a dangerous precedent for legitimizing unilateral coercive measures and unlawful action by the United States against the sovereignty and sovereign rights of coastal states.”

Iravani stressed that “Iran remains fully prepared to resolve normal maritime traffic and ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, provided that the war is permanently ended, and the unlawful blockade is lifted.”

The question today before the Council members, he said, was, “why should a member state located thousands of miles away from the Persian Gulf and acting in a destabilizing manner, be permitted to use the Security Council to advance its political agenda in the Persian Gulf? while Iran, as a coastal state of the Strait of Hormuz, is denied its lawful rights to defend its security and sovereignty and is instead threatened with enforcement action on the chapter seven of the Charter.”

Iravani said, “the United States has neither the legal, political, nor moral standing to portray itself as a defender of freedom of navigation or maritime security” adding that it has “continued its internationally wrongful act by imposing a so-called maritime blockade, unlawfully seizing Iranian commercial vessels like pirates, and taking their crews hostage.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QAZOotfgOM

Source: United Nations (video statements)

A deadly #hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean poses a low global public health risk according to World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Eight cases have been reported so far, including five laboratory-confirmed infections and three suspected cases linked to the rare Andes strain of hantavirus.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-EnVcPIgGns

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Bahrain together with the United States, with the backing of Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, circulated a draft resolution earlier this week to the Security Council on the situation of Strait of Hormuz. It calls on Iran to cease attacks, mining, and tolling in the Strait as well as to participate in the UN’s efforts to establish a humanitarian corridor.

Speaking to reporters today (7 May) in New York, Bahrain’s Ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei said, “the draft resolution is guided by the clear principal – freedom of navigation in accordance with the international law, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.:”

Ambassador Alrowaiei emphasized that it also supports ongoing efforts to seek durable peace in the region and encourages dialog in the regard. “This initiative reflects our strong commitment to regional security, to multilateral cooperation, and to the peaceful resolution of dispute,” he said.

US Ambassador Mike Waltz pointed out that the draft revolution is “an evolution “of resolution 2817. It “requires Iran to do some very simple, straightforward things, the Ambassador said, “cease its attacks on commercial shipping, cease mining and remove its mines from an international waterway; cease tolling, charging illegal tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, and allow the UN to move forward with humanitarian aid, lifesaving aid, through that international corridor.”

The US Ambassador stated that now it is left for the international community to choose, “are the countries of the Council choosing to stand with a regime that slaughters its own people, that brutalize its neighbors, that strangles the world’s economy? Or are they standing with the shining cities of Manama, Kuwait City, Dubai, Riyadh, Doha with the people that seek a better future for not only their people, but for the region and for the world?”

“I know what decision the United States is making,” Ambassador Waltz reiterated, “we’re choosing to stand with the freedom of navigation. We’re choosing to stand with international law. We’re choosing to stand with our partners as we move forward.”

For his part, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates Mohamed Abushahab said, “while the draft resolution does not give any authorization or impose sanctions on Iran, by acting under Chapter VII, the Council would make clear that its decisions in this resolution are binding and that the Council is serious about them, and that it may consider further measures if its decisions are not implemented.”

Ambassador of Qatar Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani said, “we look forward to continuing our engagement intensively with Member States to secure the support for this timely Security Council resolution on guaranteeing the freedom of navigation while protecting maritime waterways.”

The Ambassadors at the press encounters are US Ambassador Mike Waltz, Ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei, Bahrain’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Mohamed Issa Abushahab, UAE’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Abdulaziz M. Alwasil, Saudi Arabia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani, Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Ambassador Tareq M. A. M. Albanai, Kuwait’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEHDGa1Z0Bo

Source: United Nations (video statements)

Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

Highlights:
– beyond GDP
– Migration Review Forum
– Hantavirus
– Lebanon
– UNIFIL
– Occupied Palestinian Territory
– Western Sahara
– Sudan
– Somalia
– Security Council/UNISFA
– Human Rights
– Happening at the UN
———————————–
BEYOND GDP

This afternoon at 3 pm, the Secretary-General’s High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP will present their report to Member States, outlining recommendations for a country-owned and universally applicable set of indicators that go beyond GDP to guide policy and decision-making.

The Secretary-General will make remarks at the event and will say that the report being launched today is a landmark step in correcting a longstanding blind spot in measuring progress: The over-reliance on Gross Domestic Product.

He will say that while GDP will continue to be an important measurement, it will not be the only one. Our world needs a more sophisticated, more diverse, and more humane accounting system.

The report, titled “Counting What Counts: A Compass of Progress for People and Planet,” offers the United Nations’ first global framework for moving beyond GDP, proposing a wider set of measures to guide economic policy toward well-being and environmental sustainability.

MIGRATION REVIEW FORUM

This morning, in the General Assembly, the Secretary-General addressed the International Migration Review Forum.

He reminded Member States that migration is an integral part of the human story, an activity as old as humanity itself, adding that migration is not the crisis. The crisis, he said, is the world’s collective failure to manage it together.

Since the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the Secretary-General said Member States have taken concrete steps to expand regular pathways, to strengthen labour mobility initiatives, to improve search‑and‑rescue, enhance data systems, and support for safe return and reintegration.

HANTAVIRUS

I want to give you an update on the situation regarding the hantavirus, and this from our colleagues in Cabo Verde, where Patricia Portela de Souza, who is the Resident UN Coordinator in that country, together with the World Health Organization Representative there, Dr. Ann Lindstrand. They worked closely with national authorities to support the response to cases of hantavirus linked to a commercial vessel in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship, according to our information, is sailing for the Canary Islands. So far, eight cases have been reported, including three deaths.

In line with the framework of International Health Regulations, the response so far has involved close coordination between national authorities, and bilateral partners — particularly the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, many of whom are coordinating remotely from outside the country, as well as the vessel’s own operators.

WHO and the UN team have also supported with tracking and investigating cases, guidance to health professionals, infection prevention measures on board the ship, laboratory investigations and the provision of medical supplies for the vessel. A WHO expert boarded the ship in Cabo Verde, and has been joined by two doctors from the Netherlands and an expert from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. They will stay aboard the ship until it reaches its next destination in the Canary Islands.

They are conducting a medical assessment of everyone on board and gathering information to assess the risk of infection.

The World Health Organization has provided guidance to the ship’s operator on the management of health on board the vessel. They are developing step-by-step operational guidance for the safe and respectful disembarkation and onward travel of passengers and crew when they arrive.

More broadly, WHO will continue to work with the countries to ensure that the patients, the contacts, the passengers and crew have the information and support they need to stay safe and prevent the spread of the virus.

LEBANON

Moving to Lebanon. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that the humanitarian situation there remains volatile. Wednesday evening’s Israeli strike on Beirut’s ‌southern suburbs caused a new wave of displacements of civilians, who, as you can imagine, had already been impacted by months of conflict. This was the first attack on Lebanon’s capital since the ceasefire announcement of April 17th and its subsequent extension. This is obviously a very alarming development. We are deeply worried also about reports of civilians also being killed in the attack and that also includes children.

Full Highlight: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-05-07

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCS4sXpwB9o