United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this Friday that Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip represents “…a terrible example of the stagnation of world relationsand stressed that “nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people as a result of Israel’s military response.”

Guterres, who also stressed that “terrorist attacks“, committed on October 7 last year by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) There is no excuse for them either.noted that if “countries fulfilled the obligations imposed on them by the UN Charter and international law, all inhabitants of the Earth would live in peace and dignity.”

This was expressed during his speech at the Munich Security Conference, where he stated that “the problem is that many governments ignore these obligations.”

“Millions of civilians are paying a terrible price. A record number of people were forced to flee.”

“The level of death and destruction is terrible in itself. War also crossing regional borders and affecting global trade. The humanitarian aid operation is currently being carried out using a ventilator. It hardly works,” he lamented, before claiming that aid workers were working in Gaza under “unimaginable conditions, with live fire, numerous physical obstacles and restrictions.”

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In this sense, he pointed out that Rafah in the south of Gaza “center for all humanitarian assistance operationsand warned that an all-out attack on the city “would be devastating for the 1.5 million Palestinian civilians who are already on the brink of survival.”

“I have repeatedly asked immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds. This is the only way to significantly increase aid to Gaza. This must be the basis for taking concrete and irreversible steps towards a two-state solution based on international law and United Nations resolutions,” he said.

Russian-Ukrainian war

On the other hand, he pointed out that the war unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “is a clear violation of the UN Charter.” it has no place in 21st century Europe“. “Two years later, human life and suffering have become appalling, and the impact on the global economy has been particularly devastating for developing countries,” he said.

we desperately need just and lasting peace for Ukraine, for Russia and for the world. Peace in accordance with the UN Charter and international law, which establishes the duty to respect the territorial integrity of sovereign states.

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He, in turn, explained that throughout the world, “we need a concerted effort to strengthen regional organizations and for world powers to put pressure on the warring parties to come to the peace table and achieve their goals through negotiations.”

Thus, Guterres clarified that the recent decision of the Security Council to support peace enforcement and counter-terrorism operations led by the African Union is “an important step in the right direction.”

World order

The UN chief, in turn, said that “the world order does not work for anyone” and added that the world is facing “existential challenges”.

The world community is more fragmented and divided than at any other time in the last 75 years, including the Cold War era.

In turn, Guterres said that “we are faced with nuclear danger in a multipolar world, in addition to climate crisis and risks Unsupervised artificial intelligence“.

“Multipolarity has created important opportunities for balance and fairness, and for new leadership on the world stage. But the transition to multipolarity without strong global institutions can create chaos,” he emphasized.

“Today we see countries doing whatever they want without taking responsibility. Impunity seems to be the name of the game. Therefore we must all be determined to restore law supremacy“, he concluded.

(Reuters)