Not a step back in the criticism of Hamas and Israel for the Hamas war, nor an allusion to the crisis of UNRWA, the Palestinian aid agency for the Palestinians, due to the alleged collaboration of a dozen workers in the terrorist attack on October 7. On the contrary, he paid tribute to “the heroic efforts of all those workers who have paid the final high price, and the most recent and tragic case is Gaza.”
António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations Organization, insisted this Wednesday, in his speech to the General Assembly dedicated to the UN priorities in 2024, on the urgency of an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the unconditional release of the hostages. In his view, the tension that exists today is even worse than that experienced during the Cold War. There has even been a return to nuclear rearmament that could “annihilate humanity,” he lamented.
“The situation in Gaza is a festering wound in our collective conscience that threatens the entire region,” he stressed. “Nothing justifies the horrible terrorist attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7. There is also no justification for the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he reiterated.
“Yet, Israeli military operations have caused destruction and death in Gaza on a scale and speed unmatched since I became Secretary General,” he continued. “
“I am especially alarmed by reports that the Israeli military intends to focus its next move on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have flocked to safety. These actions exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with incalculable regional consequences,” he stressed, despite the fact that comments of this type have caused Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to pillory him and demand his resignation. . Guterres is another enemy for them.
In this context, Israel released the report on the corruption of UNRWA workers that led the United States, supported by nearly twenty Western countries, to withdraw funds from this key agency, without waiting for the results of the investigations in March. Guterres did complain that now that more funds are needed than ever to provide humanitarian aid, the organization is less money.
But despite Netanyahu’s refusal, the UN leader repeated that only the two-state solution, living side by side as approved in a resolution of the organization, can guarantee peace.
The perspective he offered in his speech entered the territory of global disaster due to the number of conflicts underway, without forgetting the serious threat of climate change, at a time when the geostrategic division makes the Security Council, the executive of the United Nations.
The list is long. There is the entrenched war in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion two years ago, for which it requested “a sustainable peace.” In a series of territories in the Sahel, terrorism continues its rampant expansion, with citizens paying “a terrible cost.” In the Horn of Africa, territorial integrity is in danger due to harassment by extremists. The conflict in Sudan expands. In Libya, more of the same, in the Congo, in Myanmar, in Haiti, in other Middle Eastern countries, in the Suez Canal with the attacks in the Red Sea, whose traffic has fallen by 42% since the Houthis began to launch missiles, while the Panama Canal has lost 36% of traffic due to the low water level as a result of global warming.
“Peace is a cry for action, our obligation is to act together,” he stated, now that “there is more and more anger, hatred and noise,” in which many people “fight daily for their lives in this hell.” . This turbulent world, although Guterres assured that there is light for hope, is shown acidly when “the Security Council, the first platform for the issue of peace, is stalled by geopolitical fissures,” he remarked.
“It is not the first time that it has been divided, but this time it is worse, the dysfunction is deeper and more dangerous. During the Cold War there were a series of mechanisms that helped manage relations between the superpowers. In today’s multipolar world, those mechanisms are missing. “Our world has entered the era of chaos,” Guterres warned. “We are seeing the results, a dangerous and unpredictable gratuitousness for everything without consequences,” he continued in his opinion.
“We need a new framework for peace and security to face the current complexities of this multipolar world,” in an evident internal criticism that has been repeated since February 2022 with the invasion of Ukraine and the impossibility of adopting a resolution so that the troops Russians go home. Russia’s right to veto, like that of the United States with the Gaza case, makes any progress impossible. China, the United Kingdom and France are also part of that exclusive veto club.
“First of all, the Security Council must make decisions that are implemented. And it has to be more representative. It is totally unacceptable that African countries continue to wait for a permanent seat. If this body is not updated, it will become increasingly divided,” he said.
