With Yemen pressing ahead after coming through a complex, United Nations-assisted transition, the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jamal Abdullah Al-Sallal, told the General Assembly today that continued international support would be needed, including a “strong call” from the UN Security Council against those seeking to undermine the political process.

As the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants began carrying their slaughter in the Middle East, “they might have surprised many of the countries present here, but not…us,” the Deputy Prime Minister of Syria told the United Nations General Assembly, underscoring today that the time has come for the world to stand united and tackle the threat head-on.

There is not a single child who has not been adversely affected by the recent conflict in Gaza, where children suffer from bedwetting, difficulties in sleeping, nightmares, a loss of appetite, and display more aggressive behaviour at school, an independent United Nations human rights expert said today.

While the Iraqi people were determined to defend their land of against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – “an infamous group that has taken terror to a new era and a new level” – the country's President appealed to United Nations Member States today for support, protection and relief, so that Iraq may rid itself and the world of the grave danger ISIL posed.