So, I’ll just say a quick word before heading into consultations. This is the first chance we’ve had to discuss the Council’s trip to South Sudan since the trip itself. The trip was a mixed bag; I think it’s fair to say that Council members came away feeling as if the situation was much worse than even we went in expecting. The restrictions on UN movement, which we had read about in these monthly reports that the Department of Peacekeeping sends us were one thing to read about – quite another thing to see up close, as the government was requiring written permission for secure movements for the UN in a way that we’ve not seen anywhere else in the world. The terror of civilians we saw on the ground was harrowing to witness up close.

We, as you know, managed to negotiate a communiqué with the government, at which the government agreed to set up a process with the UN to move to a place where the UN peacekeepers would be able to move freely as they are authorized to do in the Status of Forces Agreement and as the Council has demanded they be able to do. That process is supposed to produce results by the end of September, so the clock is ticking on that. We’re eager to hear an update from Hervé Ladsous about whether any progress has been made or whether the mission is as stymied as it was when we were there. And of course, the government consented to the deployment of the Regional Protection Force, but we need to hear now how the talks are going about the actual, concrete deployment of that force.

So we’re looking to sharing with those permanent representatives who weren’t able to be on the trip some graphic detail about what we found. We’re also going to discuss the harassment and intimidation of some of the civil society actors that we met with – and not just those we met with, but civil society writ large – which is very disturbing.

So we hope we will be able to secure some kind of Council consensus path forward, where as a Council, we are prepared to hold the Government of South Sudan to the commitments they made to the Council when we visited. We recognize that the commitments that were made can’t bear fruit necessarily overnight, but they also can’t take days and days to bear fruit. We need to see concrete progress in the deployment of the RPF, and concrete progress on securing movement for UN peacekeepers so that civilians who are in desperate need of protection can find it with the UN.

Q: So for now, a discussion on the arms embargo is on hold?

If the Government of South Sudan does not allow the Regional Protection Force to deploy or does not allow the UN to move in the way that it needs to move to protect civilians, the United States certainly will support an arms embargo.