Security Council extends mandate of UN Iraq Mission for one year

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations political mission in Iraq until 31 July 2018, also calling upon that country's Government to continue providing security and logistical support to the Organization's presence on the ground.

Unanimously adopting a resolution, the Council also decided that the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Secretary-General's Special Representative would, at Iraq's request, continue to pursue their mandates, outlined at the time of the previous mandate extension in 2016.

In so doing, the Council took into account a 14 June 2017 letter from Iraq's Foreign Minister to the Secretary-General. In the letter, Iraq's Government reaffirmed UNAMI's important role, particularly given that Iraqi security forces “are about to rid Iraq of the terrorist gangs of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) and to wipe them out once and for all.”

Against that backdrop, the Council expressed its intention to review the mandate in one year or sooner. It called upon the Secretary-General to conduct, by 15 October 2017, an independent external assessment of UNAMI's structure and staffing, related resources, priorities, and areas in which it enjoyed comparative advantages, in order to ensure the most appropriate configuration of the Mission and the United Nations country team.