• Sign Up for Email Alerts •
• Contact Us

About What's In Blue

When the Security Council approaches the final stage of negotiation of a draft resolution the text is printed in blue. What's in Blue is a regular feed of insights produced by Security Council Report on evolving Security Council decisions. It is designed to help interested readers at UN Missions keep up with what might soon be "in blue". These insights supplement the Monthly Forecasts and other reports from SCR.

What's in the news

posted on Mon 20 May 2013

Middle East

• 'No option off table' over Syria, says Britain's Hague. Britain warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday that "no option is off the table" over the possible arming of Syrian rebels and said it would press the EU to make further changes to its weapons embargo. In a statement to parliament, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the EU should rethink its embargo on sending weapons to Syria, even if it holds back from making an immediate decision on whether to arm the opposition to Assad. (Reuters)
• Three killed as tensions over Syria convulse Lebanese city again. Three people have been killed and about 40 wounded in two days of fighting in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli. Four of the wounded were Lebanese soldiers trying to keep the warring sides apart. Syrian activists say the latest fighting in Tripoli was ignited by tensions over an assault by Syrian troops backed by Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah militia on the rebel-held Syrian border town of Qusair. (Reuters)
• Kerry to Mideast for Syria talks. US Secretary of State John Kerry travels Monday to the Middle East for talks on holding a Syrian peace conference. President Assad said his opponents are too fragmented to negotiate. U.S. Institute of Peace analyst Steve Heydemann says Damascus is rejecting talks on issues central to the conflict. The Syrian National Coalition is not meeting with Kerry on this trip to the region and has not committed to joining peace talks. (VOA)
• Two suspected militants killed in Yemen drone strike. Two suspected al-Qaida militants were killed on Monday in a drone strike on their vehicle south of the capital Sanaa, tribal and government sources said. The strike follows another on Saturday in which at least four militants were killed in Abyan governorate, in southern Yemen. A Yemeni official did not say who was behind the attack, but previous strikes have been carried out by the US. (Reuters)
• Report says 23 Hezbollah members killed in Syria. Syrian government forces pushed deeper into a strategic opposition-held town near the Lebanese border Monday, battling rebels in fierce street fighting, state-media reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 23 elite fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group fighting alongside regime troops have been killed in the clashes. The group said that more than 100 Hezbollah members also have been wounded in the fighting around the town of Qusair. (AP)
• Wave of attacks kills at least 79 in Iraq. A wave of attacks killed at least 79 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, officials said, pushing the death toll over the past week to more than 200 and extending one of the most sustained bouts of sectarian violence the country has seen in years. The renewed violence in both Shiite and Sunni areas since late last month has fueled concerns of a return to sectarian warfare. Since last Wednesday alone, at least 224 people have been killed in attacks. (AP)

Africa

• Mali government to resume talks with Tuaregs. Talks will resume soon between the Malian government and an ethnic Tuareg rebel group whose influence has been growing in the country's north, Burkina Faso's foreign minister says. No immediate date was given for the negotiations, announced on Monday, though the announcement comes amid lingering questions about the future of rebel-held Kidal. It has remained unclear how the town could take part in long-awaited elections now promised for July. (AJE)
• South Sudan army says that it retakes town from rebels in east. South Sudan's army has retaken an eastern town captured by rebels two weeks ago, a military spokesman said on Monday, in a conflict that has uprooted thousands of people and hampered government plans to explore for oil. Army spokesman Philip Aguer said four soldiers and a dozen rebels were killed during a brief battle on Sunday to recapture Boma town in Jonglei state, where the government wants to search for oil with the help of France's Total. (Reuters)
• Khartoum behind fresh wave of violence over gold in Darfur says report. A new report by the US-based Enough Project argues that the Sudanese government's struggle for control of Darfur's gold resources, rather than inter-tribal conflicts, is behind the recent surge in violence in the war-torn western region. The report, titled "Darfur's Gold Rush: State-Sponsored Atrocities 10 Years after the Genocide," says that Arab Abbala tribesmen are being armed by Khartoum as part of a bid to wrest control of gold fields in Jebel Amer from the Beni Hussein tribe, who are the traditional custodians of the area (Sudan Tribune)
• M23 rebels attack DRC army as UN force deploys. Heavy fighting has taken place between government and rebel forces in eastern DRC. These are the first clashes between the two sides since the rebels pulled out of the regional capital, Goma, last year. They come after the UN began deploying an attack force to the area last week. Meanwhile, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said that UN troops had "in some cases" made the situation in DRC worse. (BBC)

Asia

• Suicide bomber kills senior official, 14 others in Afghan north. A suicide bomber blew up a senior official and 14 others outside a government office in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan on Monday, police said. The bomber targeted Mohammad Rasoul Mohseni, head of the provincial council office, a consultative body that reports to the provincial governor. President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack in Baghlan in a statement, calling it "un-Islamic". (Reuters)

Arms Control and Disarmament

• North Korea fires 6th missile in 3 days. North Korea has fired two more short-range missiles into waters off its eastern coast, making six launches in three days. South Korea's Defense Ministry said North Korea fired one missile on Monday morning and another in the afternoon into the East Sea - also called the Sea of Japan. Pyongyang on Monday rejected criticism of the missile exercises, saying that military training is the indisputable right of any sovereign nation. (VOA)

Follow What's in Blue

• Facebook
• Twitter
• RSS