UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The latest on the high-level U.N. General Assembly meetings (all times local):
2:35 p.m.
South Sudan’s First Vice President Taban Deng is dismissing the need for more peacekeeping forces in his country.
Speaking with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, Deng said that a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for a 4,000-strong regional force “didn’t take into consideration our concerns as a nation.”
The resolution to provide security in South Sudan’s capital and deter attacks on U.N. sites would make the regional force part of the U.N. peacekeeping contingent in South Sudan and raise its strength to 17,000 soldiers and international police.
“We have 13,000 U.N. troops in South Sudan who are sitting idle, not doing anything,” Deng said.
South Sudan became independent in 2011, but civil war broke out between the Dinka and Nuer peoples in December 2013. It lasted until a peace agreement was signed in August 2015 but fighting, that has left tens of thousands dead and more than 2 million displaced, continues.
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2:30 p.m.
North Korea’s foreign minister is vowing his country will expand its nuclear capabilities in defiance of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, saying hostile actions by the United States have left it no choice.
Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, Ri Yong Ho condemned the United States for flying two supersonic bombers over South Korea earlier this week, vowing “the United States will have to face tremendous consequences beyond imagination.”
He added that North Korea “will continue to take measures to strengthen its national nuclear armed forces in both quantity and quality in order to defend the dignity and right to existence and safeguard genuine peace vis-a-vis the increased nuclear war threat of the United States.”
Speaking at a meeting with Southeast Asian foreign ministers Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that every country has a responsibility to vigorously enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions to ensure North Korea “pays a price for its dangerous actions.”
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12:50 p.m.
The international diplomatic “quartet” of Mideast peacemakers is calling once again for Israel and the Palestinians to take steps to resume stalled peace talks.
At a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, the top diplomats of the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States urged the parties to create conditions for restarting “meaningful” negotiations toward a two-state solution. For the Israelis, this means a halt to settlement construction on territory claimed by the Palestinians. For the Palestinians, it means an end to incitement of violence.
The diplomats were also joined by the foreign ministers of Egypt and France whose countries have each proposed ideas to restart talks. The quartet said all participants had agreed on the importance of coordinating peace efforts.
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12:20 p.m.
France’s foreign minister says he will be disappointed but not discouraged if an agreement isn’t reached in New York on a new cease-fire in Syria, insisting: “We will continue to fight.”
Given the “impasse” in U.S.-Russia negotiations, Jean-Marc Ayrault vowed to fight for France’s proposal to create a cease-fire oversight mechanism involving a large number of countries that would be chaired by a U.N. representative.
He told a news conference Friday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting that he keeps asking Russia and Iran whether they favor a military or political solution.
“Every time, they respond to me that it’s the political solution,” Ayrault said. “But to have trust in that we need to look at the acts - and the acts are military ones up until now.”
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11:50 a.m.
With the Paris Agreement on climate change poised to take effect, diplomats now head to Morocco to hammer out the difficult details of how to make it work and raise the $100 billion needed each year to meet its ambitious goals.
Morocco’s Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said he expects to announce that countries accounting for over 55 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have formally joined the treaty - the threshold needed to trigger the landmark agreement - when he presides over the 22nd U.N. Climate Conference in Marrakech that starts on Nov. 7.
“Once the treaty takes effect, the next steps will require concrete actions on the part of world governments to start implementing concrete policies in order to adapt,” said Mezouar.
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