UN urges peaceful settlement of disputes as UN chief points to ‘the horror show in Gaza’
By Edith M. LEDERER
United Nations (AP) – The United Nations Security Council urged the 193 Nations of the United Nations on Tuesday to use all possible means to settle disputes peacefully. The UN chief said it was more necessary than ever because he underlined “The Horror Show in Gaza” and conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar.
The vote was unanimous on a resolution written by Pakistan in the council of 15 members.
By urging greater efforts to continue world peace, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said to the Council: “In the world, we see a total contempt for – if not the pure and simple violations of international law” as well as the Charter of the United Nations.
This occurs at a time of enlargement of geopolitical divisions and many conflicts, starting with Gaza, where “famine strikes each door” while Israel denies the United Nations space and security to provide help and save Palestinian lives, said Guterres.
Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians and a help personnel in the context of his war with Hamas and blames the United Nations agencies for having failed to deliver food in which she allowed.
In conflicts around the world, “hunger and displacement are at record levels” and security is pushed more out of reach by terrorism, violent extremism and transnational crime, said the secretary general.
“Diplomacy may not always be able to prevent conflicts, violence and instability,” said Guterres. “But it always holds the power to stop them.”
The resolution urges all countries to use the methods of the United Nations Charter to peacefully settle disputes, in particular negotiation, survey, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial regulations, reference to regional arrangements or other peaceful means.
The Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar, who chaired the meeting, cited “the tragedies in progress” in Gaza and between Pakistan and India on cashmere, one of the oldest disputes in the United Nations agenda, which must be resolved peacefully.
“At the heart of almost all conflicts around the world is a crisis of multilateralism; a failure, not principles but of will; a paralysis, not institutions but political courage,” he said.
The Pakistani diplomat called for revitalizing confidence in the United Nations system and ensuring “equal treatment of all conflicts based on international law, not on geopolitical opportunity”.
The acting American ambassador Dorothy Shea said that Trump administration supported the founding principles of the United Nations to spare the following generations of the War Scourge and work with parties to resolve disputes peacefully.
Under the leadership of President Donald Trump, she said, the United States gave a “de-escalation” between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Congo and Rwanda.
The United States calls for the countries involved in conflicts to follow these examples, said Shea, distinguishing war in Ukraine and the “illegal demands” in China in the southern China Sea.
The war in Ukraine must end, she said, and Russia must stop attacking civilians and fulfill its obligations under the United Nations Charter, which obliges all member countries to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all other countries.
“We call on other UN member states to stop providing Russia with the means to continue its assault,” said Shea.
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