U.N. Security Council creates mission to verify a Colombia peace deal

Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar poses for photographers with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon following a Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York. January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved the creation of a U.N. mission of unarmed international observers to monitor disarmament should Colombia's government and leftist FARC rebels reach a deal to end Latin America's longest war.

The 15-member council unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution that would establish a political mission for 12 months "to monitor and verify the definitive bilateral ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, and the laying down of arms."