The United Nations Security Council on Thursday 5 November adopted by consensus a presidential statement on "The Role of Diplomacy during Active Hostilities", an initiative authored by Pakistan that calls for diplomatic engagement to be maintained even after armed conflict has broken out, the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
Source: Associated Press of Pakistan via KhabarWire
Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar said the statement builds on the Council's resolution 2788 (2025), which was adopted unanimously during Pakistan's presidency of the Council in July 2025, APP reported. "When hostilities intensify, diplomacy must not retreat," Dar said, adding that diplomacy must become an even more powerful instrument for de-escalation, dialogue and peace.
Source: Associated Press of Pakistan via KhabarWire
Pakistan's Permanent Mission to the United Nations published a press stakeout by Ambassador Syed Haider Shah after the adoption, APP reported via the same account. On the same day, Dar also spoke by telephone with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, and both men stressed sustained dialogue and the need for all parties to remain constructively engaged, APP reported - a live example, on the day of the vote, of the diplomacy-during-hostilities principle the statement sets out.
Source: Associated Press of Pakistan via KhabarWire
What the statement says
According to the Security Council Report, an independent research organisation that tracks the Council, the agreed statement underscores the importance of maintaining diplomatic engagement even after the outbreak of armed conflict, with a view to containing escalation, facilitating cessations of hostilities and ceasefires, and creating conditions conducive to peaceful political settlements. It reaffirms the Council's commitment to the peaceful settlement of disputes under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, the Foreign Office account carried by The Express Tribune said.
Source: Security Council Report via EuropeSays/Commonspace
The statement emphasises maintaining direct and indirect channels of communication between parties to an armed conflict to reduce the risk of miscalculation, and recognises the contribution of member states and regional and subregional organisations to mediation, as well as the role of the Secretary-General and his representatives. It requests the Secretary-General to continue promoting and supporting diplomacy, de-escalation and mediation before and during armed conflicts, including through his good offices, and to keep the Council informed, the Security Council Report said. The final text also includes language on protecting civilians and facilitating safe, unhindered humanitarian access, with a reference to international humanitarian law qualified by the phrase "as applicable".
Source: Security Council Report via EuropeSays/Commonspace
How it was negotiated
Pakistan circulated the initial draft on 14 October, a first revised draft on 23 October and a second revised draft on 29 October, which it placed under silence procedure. After the United States broke silence, a third revised draft was circulated on 3 November and placed under silence until the morning of 4 November, when it passed, the Security Council Report said. During the talks, references to sovereignty and non-intervention were removed while broader UN Charter principles were retained, and proposed language on the participation of women and youth in diplomatic efforts was ultimately removed from the final text following the US silence break, according to the same account.
Source: Security Council Report via EuropeSays/Commonspace
The statement is the first Council product to focus specifically on the role of diplomacy in containing and de-escalating active hostilities, the Security Council Report noted. It lands while wars in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan continue: opening the General Assembly's general debate on 22 September, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of what happens when "force outpaces diplomacy" - the problem this statement is written against.
Source: Security Council Report via EuropeSays/Commonspace
What happens next
A presidential statement is not binding: it is issued by the Council's president on the Council's behalf, and the agreed text is published as a numbered UN document after the meeting. At the time of the first reports, the 5 November text had not yet appeared in the Council's 2026 presidential-statement series, so the detailed wording above rests on Pakistan's Foreign Office account and the Security Council Report's account of the agreed draft rather than on the published UN document itself. Whether governments now cite the statement in live ceasefire efforts - in the Gulf, Ukraine or Sudan - is the test of what it changes.