KABUL - The United Nations Security Council will meet in New York today, 30 June, to discuss progress and challenges in Afghanistan. The meeting, a regular quarterly session on Afghanistan, follows a visit by the full Security Council to Afghanistan last week. The UN's top envoy in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, will brief Council members on key political and security developments during the past three months and the strategy and activities of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The Security Council's four-day visit to Afghanistan, from 21-24 June, included meetings with President Hamid Karzai, Government Ministers, civil society representatives, Afghan electoral officials and parliamentarians and members of the international community, including UN agencies and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the European Union.

The mission also included a visit to Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, where the delegation met with local authorities, UN staff and Afghan returnees.

Speaking at press conference in Kabul, the delegation voiced their continued support for the country’s efforts to build a lasting peace and stressed the need for free and fair elections, improved governance and the upholding of human rights.

UNAMA is a political Mission supported by the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and its key role is to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan. As an integrated Mission, UNAMA has two main areas of operations: development and humanitarian issues, and political affairs.

Following the renewal of its mandate by the Security Council for 12 months in March 2010 (SCR 1917), UNAMA has identified four main priorities in support of the UN's overall role to assist the Government and people of Afghanistan lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development. The "3+1" are 1) support to elections; 2) reconciliation and reintegration; 3) regional cooperation; and the plus one, aid coherence. Staffan de Mistura is the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and the head of UNAMA.