{"id":32524,"date":"2024-04-19T17:54:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T17:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/?p=32524"},"modified":"2024-04-19T17:54:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T17:54:50","slug":"retaliatory-spiral-in-middle-east-must-end-says-un-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/32524","title":{"rendered":"Retaliatory spiral in Middle East must end, says UN chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres issued a new appeal to all parties to \u201cstop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary-General condemns any act of retaliation and appeals to the international community to work together to prevent any further development that could lead to devastating consequences for the entire region and beyond,\u201d he said in a statement issued by his Office.<\/p>\n

Echoing those concerns, UN atomic energy agency chief Rafael Grossi urged \u201c<\/strong>extreme restraint\u201d<\/strong> from all sides, after more than six and a half months of war in Gaza that have fuelled fears of a wider regional conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cIAEA<\/a> can confirm that there is no damage to Iran\u2019s nuclear sites” and Director-General Grossi “continues to call for extreme restraint from everybody and reiterates that nuclear facilities should never be a target in military conflicts”, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a tweet following unconfirmed media reports that possible drone strikes had targeted the Iranian province of Isfahan, which is home to nuclear facilities and military garrisons.<\/p>\n

In Geneva, too, the\u00a0UN human rights office OHCHR urged all parties \u201cto take steps to de-escalate the situation\u201d rapidly.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We) call on third States, in particular those with influence, to do all in their power to ensure there is no further deterioration in an already extremely precarious situation,\u201d said OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence.<\/p>\n

In Gaza, aid teams offered new insight into the dangers faced by Palestinian civilians \u2013 particularly pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers \u2013 as a result of the \u201cwanton destruction\u201d of vital medical equipment and widespread \u201cdehydration, malnutrition and fear\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>among Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, Dominic Allen, Representative for the UN sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA for Palestine, said that there were indications that the number of complicated births is nearly twice what it was before war erupted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is absolutely an increase in the numbers,\u201d he said, adding that pre-war, around 15 per cent of births required some form of emergency obstetric care. Today, some doctors have reported \u201ca doubling of what they previously had dealt with, and this is due to malnutrition, dehydration and fear, which impact the pregnant woman\u2019s ability to give birth safely and carry their baby to full term safely,\u201d the UNFPA official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres issued a new appeal to all parties to \u201cstop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East\u201d. \u201cThe Secretary-General condemns any act of retaliation and appeals to the international community to work together to prevent any further development that could lead to devastating consequences for the entire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1482,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-un","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32525,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32524\/revisions\/32525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}