Page 22 - United Nations

Yemen risks being dragged into Mideast conflict that could spiral, says UN

Yemen risks being dragged further into the military escalation in the Middle East that keeps intensifying and could spiral out of control, the U.N. special envoy for the Arab world's poorest nation said Tuesday. Hans Grundberg told the U.N. Security Council that regrettably Yemen is part of the escalation and he warned that repeated attacks on international shipping by its Houthi rebels have significantly increased the risk of an environment disaster in the Red Sea. Both Grundberg and the U.N.'s acting humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya urged the Iranian-backed Houthis to halt their attacks on international shipping, which the rebel group began to support fellow Iranian-backed militant group Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack in Israel that sparked Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. The U.N. officials also demanded the release of dozens of U.N. personnel, staff of non-governmental organizations and diplomatic missions, and members of civil society, most detained since June. Msuya called the ...

UN urges Asia-Pacific nations to boost investments in disaster prevention

Disasters, including those wrought by fiercer storms, are threatening more people and could derail economic progress in the Asia Pacific region if governments don't invest more in disaster mitigation and prevention, a U.N. official said Tuesday. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Kamal Kishore, who heads the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, issued the warning in a speech at the start of a regional conference on disaster mitigation hosted by the Philippines, one of the world's most disaster-prone countries. "Disasters are now affecting record numbers of people and threatening their lives and livelihoods, Kishore told hundreds of delegates to the three-day conference in Manila led by ministers in charge of disaster mitigation and response across the Asia Pacific. "Left unchecked, these disaster risks threaten to derail the development aspirations of the Asia Pacific region and push back progress that has taken decades to achieve, he said. Kishore said Asia Pacific countries sho

UNSC voices 'strong concern' for peacekeepers after Israeli attacks

The UN Security Council expressed strong concern Monday as Israel has fired on and wounded UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon during intensified fighting, reiterating its support for their role in supporting security in the region. It's the first statement by the UN's most powerful body since Israel's attacks on the positions of the peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL began last week, drawing international condemnation. UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Lacroix told reporters that Secretary-General Antnio Guterres confirmed Monday that peacekeepers will remain in all their positions even as Israel has urged the peacekeepers to move 5 kilometers (3 miles) north during its ground invasion in Lebanon. Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon across a UN-drawn boundary between the two countries. The sides have been clashing since the Iranian-backed militant group started firing rockets a year ago in solidarity with its ally Hamas in Gaza. Hamas' deadly attacks

Over 400K children in Lebanon displaced in 3 weeks by ongoing war: UN

More than 400,000 children in Lebanon have been displaced in the past three weeks, a top official with the U.N. children's agency said Monday, warning of a lost generation in the small country grappling with multiple crises and now in the middle of war. Israel has escalated its campaign against the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group, including launching a ground invasion, after a year of exchanges of fire during its war with Hamas in Gaza. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, most of them fleeing to Beirut and elsewhere in the north over the past three weeks since the escalation. Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's deputy executive director for humanitarian actions, has visited schools that have been turned into shelters to host displaced families. What struck me is that this war is three weeks old and so many children have been affected, Chaiban told The Associated Press in Beirut. As we sit here today, 1.2 million children are deprived of education. Thei

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Israeli airstikes kill two Lebanese soldiers, injure two UN peacekeepers

An Israeli airstrike killed two Lebanese soldiers and wounded three other troops on Friday, Lebanon's military said, an incident that entangles the country's official army in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The Lebanese army said the Israeli airstrike hit a building near a military checkpoint in Kafra, Bint Jbeil province in southern Lebanon. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The attack on the Lebanese army comes just hours after Israeli troops fired on the headquarters of United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, injuring two peacekeepers for the second time in as many days. Lebanon's army has largely stayed on the sidelines of the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in hopes of preventing it from spiralling out of control. After Israel troops launched their ground invasion in southern Lebanon, Lebanese troops withdrew some 5 kilometres from their observation posts along the border. But as Isra

Israel under lens for 'extermination' in destruction of Gaza health system

UN inquiry's statement also accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing and torturing medical personnel, targeting medical vehicles and restricting permits for patients to leave besieged Gaza Strip

Israeli forces fire on UN peacekeeper positions in south Lebanon: UNIFIL

Hezbollah said it had fired a missile salvo at Israeli forces on Thursday as they were trying to pull casualties out of the Ras al-Naqoura area, and they were directly hit

UN warns Gaza aid efforts could disintegrate if Israeli legislation passes

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Wednesday that if pending Israeli legislation is adopted, all humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank may disintegrate, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in dire need as war rages. Philippe Lazzarini told the UN Security Council that senior Israeli officials are bent on destroying the UN body known as UNRWA, which is the main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, the Palestinian territory rocked by a year of war between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli parliamentary committee approved a pair of bills this week that would ban UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory and end all contact between the government and the UN agency. The bill needs final approval from the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Lazzarini said in a video briefing that legally, the Knesset legislation violates Israel's obligation under the United Nations Charter and international law". Israel has alleged that some of UNRWA's thousands of staff .

Renewable energy to fall short of UN goal to triple by 2030, says IEA

It said the increase is equivalent to the current power capacity of China, European Union, India and the United States combined, but not enough to meet a target set at the COP28 UN climate conference

Pact of the Future lacks clarity on majority's UNSC expansion views: India

India has said that the 'Pact of the Future', adopted by consensus by world leaders here last month, falls short in capturing views expressed by a majority of UN member states calling for Security Council expansion and beginning text-based negotiations on reform within a fixed time frame. The UN hosted the landmark Summit of the Future during the high-level General Assembly session in September where world leaders had adopted by consensus the Pact of the Future'. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador P. Harish, addressing the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly on Strengthening of the United Nations system', said that India would have liked to see a more ambitious Chapter Five, referring to the Pact's chapter on transforming global governance that includes language on reform of the UN Security Council. Harish said that Delhi continues to believe that the Inter-Governmental Negotiations input for the Summit of the Future did not go far enough in addressing the ...

Debt burden threatens poor countries' development goals: UN official

World Bank President Ajay Banga, speaking at the same event, said official and multilateral lenders would not be able to provide the $4 trillion needed to reach the goals without help

UN like 'old company', not entirely keeping up with market: EAM Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday took a critical view of the United Nations, saying it was "like an old company", not entirely keeping up with the market but occupying the space. During an interaction at the Kautilya Economic Conclave here, he also said that two very serious conflicts are going on in the world. "And where is the UN on them, essentially a bystander," the minister said. In response to a query on the possible outcome of the US elections, he said the US actually has "made a shift", geopolitically and in its economic outlook, and irrespective of the outcomes in November, many of these trends will "intensify" in the days to come. Jaishankar took part in the interactive session on 'India and the Globe' and spoke of India's role and challenges amid changing global dynamics. "So, we are both a lifting tide and a bit of paradoxical one, a ballast as well," Jaishankar said as he enumerated some of the steps India has taken to help other countries, including it

Why did Israel ban the UN Secretary-General from entering the country? | António Guterres

On October 2, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, announced that the UN Secretary-General António Guterres was banned from entering Israel. Watch the video to know why.

China's CO2 emissions may fall by a third by 2035 with new UN targets

With China on course to meet its 2030 climate goals with relative ease, it could now capitalise on its renewable energy advantages

UN ponders how to calm conflict as Israel battles militants on 2 fronts

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday to address the spiraling conflict in the Middle East. Iran's ambassador to the UN said his country launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel on Tuesday as a deterrent to further Israeli violence, while his Israeli counterpart called the barrage an "unprecedented act of aggression". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed late on Tuesday to retaliate, and an Iranian commander threatened wider strikes on infrastructure if Israel did so. US President Biden said Wednesday that he would not support an Israeli attack targeting Iran's nuclear programme. Israel further ruffled feathers on Wednesday when its foreign minister declared the UN secretary-general "persona non-grata" in the country, doubling down on decades of accusations of antisemitism against the organisation. Israel was meanwhile battling militants on two fronts, pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah and conducting strikes in Gaz

Israel's ban on Guterres a political statement in long-running rift: UN

The United Nations on Wednesday called Israel's ban on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres entering the country a political statement by its foreign minister and stressed that the world body's contacts with Israel will continue "because they have to". UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz deeming the UN chief "persona non grata" is also "one more attack on the United Nations staff that we've seen from the government of Israel". Israel's accusations of UN bias and antisemitism date back decades, but the rift has intensified since Hamas' October 7 attacks in the country's south killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza. Israel's offensive against the militant group has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but that a little more than half were women and children. An Israeli ground incursion in Lebanon and other attacks against Hezbollah, a Lebanese

Israel bans UN Chief from entering country, declares him persona non grata

Earlier in response to Iran's rocket barrage on Israel on Tuesday night the UN Chief had said, "I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation

UNGA is world stage for disputes that are generally out of spotlight

The world's greatest stage is the sprawling Midtown Manhattan complex where leaders meet each year to discuss humanity's future. The United Nations' most powerful body the Security Council is paralysed by disputes, so this year's most varied speeches were delivered before the 193-member General Assembly. Like the 15-nation Security Council with its five vetoes, the UNGA devoted much time to the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine and Sudan. But the more democratic institution also turned global attention to topics little-known outside individual countries and regions. A look at some of the issues that countries brought to the world stage or ignored during their time on the global stage: Guatemala-Belize Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo spoke on Tuesday and asserted that his country is moving beyond its dark past of US-backed dictatorship, civil war and human-rights violations, saying that corruption drowns its roots in a past of authoritarianism, repression and political violenc

Taiwan condemns China's 'distortion' of UN resolution, calls for support

Taiwan continues to rally int'l support against China's aggressive posturing, calling for timely rebuttals to Beijing's legal and political manoeuvres aimed at isolating Taiwan from global stage