Noon briefing of 23 December 2025
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE U.N. SYSTEM,
TUESDAY, 23 DECEMBER 2025
IRAN
Rosemary DiCarlo, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, briefed the Security Council on resolution 2331, concerning non-proliferation and Iran, and she discussed the Secretary-General’s report on that matter, which said that despite intensified diplomatic efforts during the second half of 2025, there was no agreement on the way forward regarding the Iran nuclear programme.
Ms. DiCarlo said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified that, during the recent period, Iran has exceeded the limits on its nuclear programme as stipulated in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The IAEA concluded that a commonly-agreed framework with the support of countries concerned was necessary to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme was exclusively peaceful.
Ms. DiCarlo recalled to the Council that the Secretary-General has stated that a negotiated settlement that would secure the overall objectives of ensuring a peaceful Iranian nuclear programme and providing sanctions relief is the best option available to the international community.
OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the UN and its partners in the Gaza Strip continue to respond to the mounting needs of displaced families and to mitigate the impact of recent winter storms, which have further worsened conditions for thousands of people across the Strip.
However, partners report that despite these efforts, the humanitarian response has been unable to keep pace with the scale of needs due to ongoing restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities, including on the entry of supplies into Gaza.
For example, shortages of new materials are complicating efforts to maintain and repair Gaza City’s sewage networks, with teams having to use old components.
Meanwhile, partners leading on water and sanitation services report that efforts are underway to improve water purification capacity at the Al Bassa Desalination Plant in Deir al Balah by transferring specialized equipment to the facility. In Gaza city, installation of the Al Manshia Desalination Plant has begun.
In the West Bank, OCHA warns that ongoing operations by Israeli forces and settler violence continue to put Palestinians at risk and deepen humanitarian needs.
Over the past two weeks, OCHA has documented further incidents resulting in the killing and injury of Palestinians. Between 9 and 22 December, six Palestinians were killed, including five by Israeli forces and one by an Israeli settler. Of the total, four were children. Three Israelis were injured by Palestinians during the same period.
OCHA is also deeply concerned by the ongoing displacement of Palestinians across the West Bank, with over 100 Palestinians displaced due to demolitions and evictions over the past two weeks, including 63 in East Jerusalem and the rest in Area C.
This includes 50 people – among them 21 children – displaced in a single Israeli demolition of a four-story building in the Silwan neighbourhood on 22 December for lacking an Israeli-issued building permit, which is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.
SYRIA
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that humanitarian needs remain severe across Syria, with 16.5 million people, or nearly two thirds of the population, still needing aid.
Explosive ordnance contamination remains a major threat. In November alone, 21 people were killed and more than 60 injured, half of them children.
On the education front, 2.5 million children remain out of school and 40 per cent of schools are non-operational.
In 2025, the UN and humanitarian partners reached more than 3 million people each month with humanitarian assistance.
Meanwhile, OCHA and its partners continue to coordinate with authorities and monitor developments in Aleppo City where a cease-fire agreement was reached last night.
Recent hostilities in the area resulted in the shelling of multiple neighborhoods triggering new displacement. According to the Ministry of Health, two civilians were killed and several others injured.
The World Health Organization (WHO) despatched emergency health kits to health authorities.
YEMEN
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, welcomed the outcomes of a meeting in the Sultanate of Oman, during which the parties to the conflict in Yemen agreed to the new phase of conflict-related detainees from all sides. He stressed the humanitarian significance of demonstrating progress on the release of conflict-related detainees.
The meeting was held within the framework of the Supervisory Committee on the Implementation of the Detainees’ Release Agreement, co-chaired by the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen (OSESGY) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This was the tenth meeting of the Supervisory Committee, established under the Stockholm Agreement to support the parties in meeting their commitments under the Stockholm Agreement to release all conflict-related detainees.
The Office of the Special Envoy reaffirmed its commitment to continue facilitating the implementation of the Detainees’ Exchange Agreement, in line with humanitarian principles.
SUDAN
On Monday, the Security Council held a briefing on Sudan. Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Khaled Khiari, told the Council that the continued supply of increasingly sophisticated and deadly weapons remains a key driver of the conflict. He called on the backers of both sides to use their influence to help stop the slaughter, not fuel further devastation.
He added that the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, remains in contact with both warring parties to encourage engagement on concrete and implementable measures to de-escalate violence and strengthen the protection of civilians. Mr. Lamamra’s office is also developing a Consensus Document to synthesize the visions put forward by Sudanese political actors and prominent individuals.
For her part, the Director of the Crisis Response Division at OCHA, Edem Wosornu, said that as this catastrophic war nears the 1,000-day mark, its devastating toll on civilians continues to expand and intensify.
She renewed the UN’s call for urgent, concerted engagement and action along three tracks: first, on protection. The Security Council must send a strong, unequivocal message that attacks directed against civilians, indiscriminate attacks and sexual violence will not be tolerated; second, on access, the UN’s presence on the ground must be strengthened in all areas of need, including across the Darfur and Kordofan regions; and finally, with another grim milestone in this nightmarish war approaching, renewed efforts are needed now more than ever to halt the fighting and move the parties towards the inclusive and lasting nationwide ceasefire that is so desperately needed.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
The Secretary-General welcomes the ad hoc Summit on the Security Situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region, which took place in Entebbe on 21 December.
He commends President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda for this initiative. Regional mechanisms remain an indispensable component of international efforts to restore peace in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region and to address the root causes of conflict.
Huang Xia, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region attended the meeting. The United Nations stand ready to accompany all efforts for sustainable peace and development in the Great Lakes region.
In the country, the World Food Programme is scaling-up to deliver life-saving assistance to more than 210,000 of the most vulnerable people displaced by the recent violence.
WFP aims to reach the most vulnerable displaced families and host communities in South Kivu Province with a survival package of cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, iodized salt and specialized nutrition to prevent malnutrition for young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.
In Burundi, WFP is supporting 71,000 new arrivals from the DRC with hot meals in transit centers. In Rwanda, up to 1,000 recent arrivals have been supported with hot meals and nutrition assistance. Nutrition screening is being conducted, and WFP is distributing specialized nutritious foods to prevent malnutrition among new arrivals.
To deliver emergency assistance to the families struck by the recent crisis, WFP urgently needs $67 million to assist the most vulnerable forced to flee in DRC and $12 million in Burundi.
This latest crisis comes at times when WFP operations in these countries are already severely underfunded. To keep operations running across all programmes in all three countries for the next six months, WFP urgently needs $350 million in DRC, $39 million in Burundi and $17 million in Rwanda.
UKRAINE
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that overnight strikes and front-line hostilities in Ukraine once again caused civilian casualties and damages to critical energy infrastructure.
Between 22 December and the early hours of 23 December, authorities reported several civilians killed and nearly 30 injured, including children. Attacks also damaged homes in the regions of Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Kherson, Dnipro, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, as well as in the capital Kyiv.
In the Odesa region, overnight drone strikes damaged more than 120 residential buildings and key energy, port and transport infrastructure, particularly in the port town of Reni, near the border with Romania. More than 10,000 customers were left without electricity, while critical facilities are operating on backup power.
Further north, strikes damaged energy facilities in the town of Novhorod-Siverskyi in the Chernihiv region and in Shostka Town in the Sumy region, leaving parts of Shostka, already heavily affected by previous attacks, without electricity and heating once again. The Ministry of Energy also reports large-scale power outages in the Khmelnytskyi, Rivne and Ternopil regions, with disruptions recorded in six additional regions. These attacks come as temperatures in parts of Ukraine are expected to be below zero in the coming days.
NGOs, UN agencies and partners are mobilized and are assessing needs, providing emergency aid and registering people for cash assistance.
In the past 11 months, the UN and its humanitarian partners reached more than 430,000 people with emergency assistance, including essential medical supplies and health care services, as well as cash assistance, following strikes across the country. Most assistance was delivered in front-line regions, while needs are rising in previously less affected areas as attacks expand.
On Tuesday, an inter-agency humanitarian convoy delivered eight metric tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Novoraiske community in the Kherson region, where access has been constrained following recent attacks. The assistance included medical and hygiene supplies, charging stations, children’s clothing and mattresses. Due to continued hostilities, several locations in the community, home to around 1,900 people, including more than 200 children, currently have no access to water, gas or electricity.
HONDURAS
The Secretary-General is closely following developments in Honduras in the aftermath of the 30 November general elections. He welcomes the calm and orderly manner in which the vote was conducted and notes with concern the growing tensions as the official declaration of results is still awaited. He urges all actors to exercise maximum restraint, refrain from language or actions that could escalate tensions, and allow electoral institutions to complete their work without interference, addressing electoral disputes through established legal mechanisms.
The Secretary-General stresses the importance of declaring the official results according to the legally mandated timeline and to ensure an orderly transition on 27 January.
Respecting the sovereign will of the people is essential to ensuring stability and peace.
CAMBODIA
In response to questions about the humanitarian situation in Cambodia, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that according to the latest figures from Cambodian authorities, more than 330,000 people are displaced near the border. The UN and our partners are supporting the Government-led humanitarian response in the areas of food, water, health and protection, among others. OCHA is also participating in needs assessments and will deploy a team shortly to support coordination.
MYANMAR
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that Myanmar is witnessing intensified violence, repression and intimidation ahead of military-controlled elections on 28 December, with civilians being threatened by both the military authorities and armed groups opposing the military regarding their participation in the polls.
Dozens of individuals have reportedly been detained under an “election protection law” for the exercise of their freedom of expression. The UN Human Rights Office has also received reports from displaced people in several areas of the country, including Mandalay region, who have been warned they would be attacked or their homes seized if they did not return to vote.
People are also facing serious threats from armed groups opposing the military.
UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, said the military authorities in the country must stop using brutal violence to compel people to vote and stop arresting people for expressing any dissenting views. “These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” Türk said. “There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly that allow for the free and meaningful participation of the people.”