Security Council

Long-anticipated peace talks that are projected to help bring an end to a five-year-old war in Syria finally started in Geneva on Jan. 29, albeit with many issues left uncertain and unexplained.

The United Nations Security Council on Jan. 25 approved the creation of a U.N. mission of unarmed international observers to monitor disarmament should Colombia's government and leftist FARC rebels reach a deal to end Latin America's longest war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet in Zurich on next week for talks on Syria and Ukraine.  

During a telephone call, "Lavrov and Kerry agreed to hold a personal meeting on Jan. 20 in Zurich," the Russian foreign ministry said Jan. 14.

The diplomatic crisis surrounding Saudi Arabia and Iran widened Jan. 5 as Kuwait recalled its ambassador to Tehran in the face of growing international concern.

Joining Riyadh and its Sunni Arab allies in taking diplomatic action, Kuwait said it was withdrawing its envoy over a weekend attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

The UN Security Council on Jan. 4 strongly condemned an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran by protesters angry over Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

The leader of the main exile Syrian opposition group will visit China this week, Beijing said Jan. 4, despite the country repeatedly blocking UN Security Council resolutions on the conflict.

The United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Syria has set January 25 as the target date to begin talks between the parties on ending the ongoing conflict in Syria.

The announcement of the target date comes just over a week after the Security Council adopted unanimously resolution 2254.

The Arab League has failed to understand Turkey's self-sacrificing and resolved efforts against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the region, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said on Dec. 26.

Turkish Defense Minister ?smet Y?lmaz said the withdrawal of "security" troops stationed in the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq is continuing, while the troops deployed for training purposes were to stay at Bashiqa.

A top U.N. official says Geneva will host new diplomatic talks in January aimed at resolving the Syrian conflict.

Michael Moller, the head of the United Nations in Geneva, told reporters Dec. 22 that the talks are to take place in the U.N. office in the Swiss city, though he says no date has been set under the guidance of United Nations' Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura.