Despite ‘light’ August agenda, Security Council to closely follow key global events

Although the United Nations Security Council’s work programme for August would be relatively light, the 15-nation body’s president for the month today said that it would nevertheless follow closely key international events, including the mid-month deadline for the drafting of an Iraqi constitution, and, at month’s end, the completion of the so-called Bonn processes, which set Afghanistan on the road stability in 2001.

Briefing the press at UN Headquarters in New York, Kenzo Oshima of Japan, which holds the Council’s rotating Presidency for August said the agenda for the month was “a relatively light one,” and added that he hoped it would remain that way.

He said the Council would also follow closely the important political events that were expected to take place in the Middle East, including the withdrawal from Gaza in the third week of August, as well as the 15 August deadline of the Constitution-drafting process in Iraq.

On 23 August, the Council would hold a public meeting on the situation in Afghanistan in the context of the Assembly elections to be held there in September. Those elections would mark the end of the “Bonn” process. It would therefore be appropriate to start thinking about how the international community could continue to be involved in the consolidation of peace in that country.

Answering a question about the possibility of Iran being put on the Council’s agenda as early as this week, as new United States representative, John R. Bolton wanted, Ambassador Oshima said Iran had sent a formal letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), declaring its intention to restart its uranium conversion at certain nuclear facilities. The Council would monitor closely ongoing consultations and negotiations between the European Union Three (France, Germany and the United Kingdom) and Iran.

Asked about the Council’s plans to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe, he said the Council had considered a report on Zimbabwe last month of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN-HABITAT, which called on the Government to stop the demolition of homes and markets, pay reparations to those who lost housing and livelihoods and punish those who, "with indifference to human suffering," carried out the evictions. The Secretary-General intended to visit the country in the future. The Council would monitor the developments in Zimbabwe closely.