Some described the dramatic images as “fake news” staged to falsely incriminate the Government of Syria and its allies. In April, following the circulation on social media of shocking images appearing to show gassed civilians gasping for breath, Council members again differed in their versions of events. While members stood united against the use of chemical weapons, they diverged sharply over the credibility of the relevant allegations, the identity of the perpetrators and the appropriate response. The Council met repeatedly amid reports that chemical weapons have been used against civilians in and around the southern district of Eastern Ghouta. The complex, bloody conflict in Syria entered its eighth year in 2018, with a shifting cast of international actors and coalitions remaining staunchly divided over the best course of action. More broadly, Council members, as well as the wider United Nations membership, repeatedly voiced alarm over indications that - seven decades into the world’s grand experiment in multilateralism - deepening divisions and a rising tide of nationalism threaten to derail hard-won gains. Such allegations prompted many Council members to express grave concern over a perceived erosion of critical, long-held international norms governing warfare. One of the Council’s most intense divisions revolved around a worrying spike in the reported use of chemical weapons, from the battlefields of Syria to the tranquil United Kingdom town of Salisbury. Against that backdrop, regional organizations such as the African Union took an increasingly prominent role in addressing their own challenges, raising new questions about the role and responsibilities of the United Nations in an evolving and more complex world. The Council’s five permanent members - China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States - remained gridlocked on several of the organ’s oldest agenda items, with fresh divisions also emerging over newer issues. Meanwhile, a greater percentage of resolutions adopted in 2018 lacked the Council’s unanimous support than in the previous year.
It also failed to adopt a total of seven draft resolutions, three of them due to a permanent member’s exercise of its veto and four owing to a lack of sufficient votes in their favour. Over the course of the second-busiest year in its history, the 15-member Council convened a total of 275 public meetings, adopted 54 resolutions and issued 21 presidential statements. The Security Council remained largely paralysed by expanding rifts and mounting tensions involving its permanent members in 2018, a year characterized by the rise of nationalist movements and breaches of long-standing global norms that sparked questions about the very future of multilateralism. Rifts over Iran, Korean Peninsula, Ukraine Blight Debates, as Others Stress Protection for Rights of Migrants, Refugees, Women, Youth
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