{"id":40075,"date":"2026-04-03T13:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/?p=40075"},"modified":"2026-04-03T13:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:51:17","slug":"un-chief-warns-middle-east-conflict-nears-wider-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/40075","title":{"rendered":"UN Chief warns Middle East conflict nears \u2018wider war,\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWYORK: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that the Middle East conflict risked spiraling into a wider war with catastrophic global implications.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking to the press outside the Security Council in New York, the UN chief painted a grim picture of the rapidly deteriorating situation, as Israel and the US continue to bomb Iran while Tehran carries out attacks on neighbouring Gulf States and threatens ships it deems hostile against using the crucial Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day this war continues, human suffering grows. The scale of devastation grows. Indiscriminate attacks grow,\u201d Mr. Guterres stated, noting that the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as general perils to the world economy \u2013 especially the most vulnerable societies which depend on energy imports \u2013 are mounting daily.<\/p>\n

He emphasised that the impacts of the crisis are no longer contained within the region, pointing specifically to the severe disruptions surrounding freedom of navigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Strait of Hormuz is strangled, the world\u2019s poorest and most vulnerable\u00a0cannot breathe,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

He noted that the consequences are already visible \u201cin the daily lives of people\u00a0struggling with rising food and energy costs\u00a0from the Philippines\u2026to Sri Lanka\u2026to Mozambique.\u201d<\/p>\n

To curb this escalating trajectory, the Secretary-General announced he is dispatching his Personal Envoy, Jean Arnault, to the region to assist in ongoing peace initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spiral of death and destruction must stop,\u201d he implored, urging that diplomatic efforts be given the space and support to succeed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Guterres stressed that\u00a0any resolution must be anchored firmly in international law and the UN Charter.<\/p>\n

He called for disputes to be settled peacefully, for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all Member States to be respected, and for the protection of civilians and nuclear installations under threat in Iran and elsewhere as the war metastasizes.<\/p>\n

Directly addressing the combatants, the Secretary-General declared: \u201cTo the United States and Israel,\u00a0it is high time to stop the war that is inflicting immense human suffering and already triggering devastating economic consequences.”<\/p>\n

Iran, he continued, must stop attacking its neighbours.<\/p>\n

Reiterating that the Security Council has already condemned these attacks and reaffirmed the need to respect navigational rights in critical maritime routes,\u00a0the UN chief reminded world leaders that the power to end the crisis lies in their hands.<\/p>\n

“Conflicts do not end on their own,” Mr Guterres concluded. “They end when leaders choose dialogue over destruction. That choice still exists. And it must be made \u2013 now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEWYORK: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned that the Middle East conflict risked spiraling into a wider war with catastrophic global implications. Speaking to the press outside the Security Council in New York, the UN chief painted a grim picture of the rapidly deteriorating situation, as Israel and the US continue to bomb Iran […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":40076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1470,1469,31,1482,1378],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran","category-new-york","category-news","category-un","category-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40075","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=40075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40077,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40075\/revisions\/40077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}