The Security Council will aim to act on issues concerning Haiti, Iran and Sudan in September, the representative of France, its President for the month, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today, while noting that world leaders will soon gather in the same building to address the General Assembly.
“Ours is a presidency that is being held in a very peculiar, singular context,” noted Jérôme Bonnafont (France), Council President for September. This month will see the opening of a new Assembly session and the annual high-level week in which Heads of State and Government will convene in New York. Tradition dictates that the Assembly has “pride of place” this month, he emphasized.
As for the Council, he said that the organ bears the responsibility of proposing collective responses to conflicts, protecting civilians and facilitating the peaceful resolution of armed conflicts in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. “We will strive for an international order based on law and justice,” he said, adding that, while the Council is a place for discussion, “it is, above all, a place for action”.
“The Council can — and must — act, and every time it’s appropriate, we will propose consultations to ensure that progress can be made with the adoption of operational conclusions,” he emphasized. To that end, several meetings in September should result in decisions, including the renewal of the sanctions regime overseen by the Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning Sudan, as well as the mandates of the Gang Suppression Force in Haiti and the Panel of Experts established pursuant to resolution 1929 (2010) concerning the Iranian nuclear issue.
September will see the Council hold several mandated meetings, he said, noting quarterly meetings on the Syrian chemical-weapons file, the Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1737 (2006), the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The Council will hold informal interactive dialogues with the League of Arab States and on the crisis in Sudan.
He said that France’s presidency will hold several thematic debates, “which seek to see the Council speak out on issues that are not geographical crises, but general concerns”. The first will be on Wednesday, 2 September, in the form of an informal interactive dialogue that France organized with Latvia to discuss the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in conflict resolution. Possible areas of discussion include the technology’s application in monitoring ceasefires, assisting peacekeeping operations or fighting disinformation.
Another thematic meeting will occur on 11 September, 25 years after the “New York bombings”, he said. This will provide an opportunity for the Council to renew momentum for efforts to counter terrorism and will also touch on the impact of new technology in this context. And on 25 September, the Council will “most likely” hold an annual meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, he said, noting that it will be the organ’s first meeting with new Commissioner Barham Salih.
Adding that the presidency is ready to organize “any emergency meeting for which a need may arise” and to “heed the needs of Member States for debates to be convened”, he said: “We have, of course, in mind the Middle East [and] Ukraine — that is a priority for France, too.” He concluded: “At the heart of our debates, what will always be present is listening to the States concerned by conflicts and civil society.”
He then responded in his national capacity to questions, several of which concerned Ukraine. Asked whether France is considering holding a meeting on Ukraine during high-level week — and if so, what it would hope to achieve by doing so — he said that he expects such a meeting to be held. As for its goal, he underlined the need for a ceasefire, “which is an absolutely necessary thing”.
Relatedly, on whether his country will continue promoting a draft resolution calling for such a measure, he reiterated that a ceasefire is “necessary” to achieve a just and lasting peace. “We support whatever will allow us to get closer to this goal,” he stressed, spotlighting a recent meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” in which Heads of State and Government assured Ukraine “that its security will be guaranteed when it enters into durable peace negotiations with Russia so that, in the future, what has happened in 2014 and in 2022 does not happen again”.
Other questions pertained to the Middle East. One concerned how France can explain its verbal support for the State of Palestine — as evidenced by its role in organizing the conference that led to the New York Declaration — with its continued shipment of weapons to Israel. Noting that his answer would focus on the UN’s response to the Israel-Palestine issue, he spotlighted “two channels of action” — the Assembly can reaffirm Palestinians’ right to a State and Israelis’ right to security, while the organ can discuss the armed conflict and implementation of resolution 2803 (2025).
Regarding France’s potential participation in the new military and civilian mission, mentioned today by the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to advise and train Lebanese forces, he said that his answer would be a more general one. “The issue in front of the Security Council is the future of the UN presence in Lebanon,” he stated, noting upcoming discussions among Council members, troop-contributing countries and regional States “to build what is to succeed the current UN presence”.
As for Syria, asked about protests by Syrian Kurds following measures by Damascus to “dismantle Kurdish-language education”, he said that “one of the pivotal issues at the heart of [Council] discussions is national reconciliation”. Another is building a Syria with a new institutional framework within which the rights of all citizens are respected, and he said that “it’s within that context that we will examine the issue of the Kurds’ integration in Syria as it is being rebuilt”.
He was also asked whether France intends to address the thousands of people still detained in Iran following the protests there, to which he responded that “the heart of [Council] discussions this month will be the nuclear issue” and the consequences of Iran’s non-compliance with its obligations in this area. However, he noted that this will not be considered “in a vacuum”, as there are also concerns about freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and the civilian population in Iran who are “victims of choices made by Iranian authorities for years now”.
Elsewhere, on what the Council hopes to achieve in Afghanistan and whether the United States and European Council members are still aligned on this topic, he stressed that the Taliban “did not heed the international community’s appeal” regarding the situation of women and girls there. The organ must therefore consider this when deciding the future UN presence in the country and, to this end, will hear from Afghan civil society “so that we can really get an idea of what’s happening on the ground”, he said.
A related question on working methods concerned France’s intention to have countries whose situation is on the Council’s agenda speak first. Explaining, he said: “It seems to us, indeed, that in several situations it would be interesting to listen to those countries which are in crisis before Council members speak so that there’s more of a dialogue.” However, some States have objected to this, so France will listen to them and “then we’ll see to what extent we can move along with this idea”.
Other questions pertained to the upcoming high-level week. On what message French President Emmanuel Macron will bring to the Assembly and whether France intends to raise the issue of United States funding for right-wing media in the country ahead of elections there — which was mentioned by the French Foreign Minister — he said that these are questions for those individuals “because it’s not within my remit to pre-empt decisions”.
He did answer, however, a question concerning what issues are likely to dominate during high-level week. “It is always extremely important to observe that participation in the high-level week of the General Assembly is massive,” he said, and that many Heads of State come to New York to reaffirm commitment to the UN and to multilateralism. Further, Heads of State and Government must gather to address questions of reform, financial challenges and the Organization’s capacity to “answer the problems of the world as they are asked today”.
And on the process of selecting the next Secretary-General, he noted ongoing Council discussions. Noting the “immense responsibility” that the next UN chief must shoulder, he said that France is in dialogue with all current candidates. “The process continues,” he said.
For the full programme of work, please see: https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/programme-work.