Source: United Nations (video statements)
In the Central African Republic, days before the elections scheduled for December 28, the distribution of voter cards is underway throughout the country. Central Africans are voting for Presidential, general, regional and local elections on Sunday 28 December 2025, with the technical, logistical, and security support of MINUSCA, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Briefing the Council, Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, said there was no consensus among Member States on the legality of the snapback process.
“Several relevant Member States rejected the validity and effect of the snapback process,” DiCarlo said, noting that some described it as “procedurally and legally flawed.”
DiCarlo also outlined findings from the International Atomic Energy Agency. She said the IAEA reported that Iran had stopped implementing its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA in February 2021, while continuing to exceed agreed limits on its nuclear programme, even as some monitoring continued under Iran’s safeguards obligations.
DiCarlo reiterated the UN Secretary-General’s position that diplomacy remained the preferred path forward. “A negotiated settlement that would secure the overall objectives of ensuring a peaceful Iranian nuclear programme and providing sanctions relief is the best option available to the international community,” she said.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
As tension between the United States and Venezuela heightens, UN senior official Khaled Khiari reiterated, “dialogue is the only viable path toward lasting peace and preventing further instability and human suffering.”
The United States’ military presence and operations in the Southern Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela, have increased since the Council last discussed the situation on 10 October, Khaled Khiari, the Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific told Council Members.
Khiari said, “The Secretary-General stands ready to support all efforts at diplomatic engagement, including the exercise of his good offices, if both parties so request it. He welcomes initiatives by Member States, offers for mediation, and proposals for peaceful solutions.”
The Assistant Secretary-General also underscored, “As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, the United Nations and its partners continue to work and deliver assistance in support of the Venezuelan people, including through recent financial allocations of the United Nation’s Central Emergency Response Fund, and the Venezuela Humanitarian Fund.”
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya “firmly” condemned the seizure by US troops of petroleum tankers and the effective imposition of a blockade in Venezuela.
He said, “The acts by the US side run counter to all key norms of international law, including the UN Convention on Law of the Sea, Security Council resolutions and the Charter itself of the United Nations.”
Chinese Ambassador Sun Lei called on the United States to” heed the just call of the international community, immediately halt relevant actions, and avoid further escalation of tensions.”
Ambassador Sun urged the United States to “uphold the navigation safety of regional countries and the freedom and rights they enjoy under international law, to conduct normal law enforcement and judicial cooperation under bilateral and multilateral legal frameworks, to lift illicit unilateral sanctions and to do more to promote peace, stability and development in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
For his part, US Ambassador Mike Waltz reiterated that his country “does not recognize Nicolas Maduro or his cronies as the legitimate government of Venezuela.”
“Nicolas Maduro is a fugitive from American justice and the head of the foreign terrorist organization Cartel de los Soles,” Ambassador Waltz said.
The US Ambassador also highlighted, “President Trump has been very clear that he is going to use the full power of the United States of America, the full might of the United States, to take on and eradicate these drug cartels, which have operated with impunity in our hemisphere for far too long. And everyone knows it.”
For his part, Venezuelan Ambassador Samuel Moncada said, “We want to alert the world: Venezuela is only the first target of a larger plan. The US government wants us to be divided so it can conquer us piece by piece.”
He continued, “The United States, which was an indispensable country in the construction of the United Nations and in the drafting of its founding Charter, has today become an actor that seeks to impose itself on the fundamental rights of all states in the Western Hemisphere, even at the cost of destroying the UN.”
Ambassador Moncada also said, “The US government – the aggressor – requires its propaganda apparatus to present it to the world as a country under attack to initiate an armed conflict.”
He denounced “this dangerous manipulation and assure the world that we will not lose our composure in defending the peace of our nation.”
“Let us repeat: the threat is not Venezuela; the threat is the US government,” the Venezuelan Ambassador said.
Ambassador Moncada also said, “The truth is brutal and criminal. The US government is threatening an armed attack against Venezuela to satisfy the big oil corporations, particularly ConocoPhillips and Exxon-Mobil, which are the pioneers and the thefts of Venezuelan oil.”
He continued, “The children of American families will be ordered to risk their lives to line the pockets of oil company shareholders with billions of dollars, while thousands of Venezuelan and American families are destroyed.”
“It is blood for oil. Blood for oil is not a noble proposition. It is unworthy and unacceptable. War for oil is a death sentence, the same one offered to Iraq, Syria, Libya, and so many others,” Ambassador Moncada said.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Briefing by Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, on threats to international peace and security, during the Security Council, 10080th meeting.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Joint media stakeout delivered by Ambassador Samuel Žbogar, Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations, on behalf of Denmark, France, Greece, Guyana, Panama, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, on the situation of women and girls in Sudan.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Joint media stakeout delivered by Ambassador Samuel Žbogar, Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations, on behalf of Denmark, France, Greece, Guyana, Panama, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, on the situation of women and girls in Sudan.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Media stakeout by Dr. Kamil Idris, Prime Minister of Sudan, on the situation in the country.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Informal comments to the media by James Kariuki, Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, on the situation in Myanmar.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Filippo Grandi has devoted more than three decades to easing the suffering of refugees: “My pride after all these years is that the center of this effort of my lifetime has been on people, and especially on the people that suffer most in the world, including refugees.”
Now, shortly before his term comes to an end, and as more than 117 million people worldwide remain forcibly displaced, the long-serving UN High Commissioner for Refugees is welcoming a rare moment of hope for one of the world’s largest refugee populations. “Home means your house, your family, your friends, your work, your school, and it is fantastic when, like in Syria […] people can go back to their homes. This is what most refugees want.”
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, not only helps those who flee war and persecution, but also those who choose to go home when peace returns. Appearing on Awake at Night for a second time, Filippo Grandi reflects on the dangers of divisive politics, the human cost of painful budget and staff cuts, and shares his hopes and dreams for life after the UN.
Source: United Nations (video statements)
Four months after unveiling a UN-backed political roadmap for Libya, progress remains stalled by institutional deadlock and mistrust, UN Libya envoy Hanna Serwaa Tetteh told the Security Council.
Briefing the Council in New York, Tetteh said efforts to advance electoral preparations had failed to meet agreed timelines, despite repeated engagement with Libya’s rival political bodies. She recalled that committees from the House of Representatives and the High Council of State had agreed in October to reconstitute the High National Elections Commission within two weeks, but “despite multiple efforts and engagements with these institutions, this did not happen.”
Tetteh said a subsequent agreement signed on 28 November, under UN auspices, established a mechanism to select new HNEC board members, with a deadline of 11 December to finalize the process. That deadline also passed without action.
“It is my assessment that the delays are a manifestation of the lack of trust between the two institutions, their own internal divisions, and the inability to overcome their differences and agree on the way forward to resolve the current impasse,” Tetteh said, adding that she recognized “the serious efforts by some members to advance these two processes.”
Despite the setbacks, Tetteh highlighted the launch of a new UN-facilitated dialogue process held inside Libya earlier this month, describing it as a key component of the roadmap.
“On 14 and 15 December, UNSMIL launched the inaugural meeting of the Structured Dialogue which is one of the three core components of the Roadmap,” she said. “This is the first process of this magnitude to be held on Libyan soil.”
She said participants included representatives from sovereign institutions, civil society, political parties, academia and cultural and linguistic groups, alongside other state institutions.
