Jan Kubis

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on March 2 met with Jan Kubis, the special U.N. envoy for Libya, in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter that they discussed recent developments in the intra-Libyan political process and the formation of a new interim government.

"Our support to ensure stability in brotherly Libya will continue," he added.

The UN Security Council on Sept. 21 warned that a referendum on independence by Iraq's Kurdistan region was potentially destabilizing, adding its weight to international opposition to the vote.

The scope of the toll the six-week old battle for Mosul has taken on Iraqi forces emerged Dec. 1, with U.N. figures showing that around 2,000 had been killed in fighting last month alone, while 926 civilians were also killed in fighting in the past month.

Continuous violence has left at least 670 Iraqis dead in February, of whom about two-thirds were civilians, the United Nations said.

At least 18,802 civilians were killed and another 36,245 were wounded in Iraq between the start of 2014 and Oct. 31 of last year as Iraqi forces battled the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to a U.N. report released on Jan 19.

Political parties in Iraq's Kurdish region, whose president's mandate expired in August, should respect democratic principles, the top UN envoy said on Oct. 14. 

Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, has warned early elections would be held in the region if political parties failed to resolve an ongoing crisis over the KRG?s presidency.

?Ongoing differences between political parties with regard to the presidential crisis are part of the democratic process,? he said in a Sept. 5 statement.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Baghdad on March 30 for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other top officials.
      
Ban first met President Fuad Masum and Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and was also due to meet parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi before holding talks with Abadi.
      

Croatia's FM says she could run for top UN job

ZAGREB -- Croatia's Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic has announced the possibility of running for the office of secretary-general of the United Nations.