Guterres Urges World Leaders to Save Two State Solution
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 22: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday warned that Israel’s settlement expansion, violence and forced displacement in the occupied West Bank were destroying hopes for peace and raising the “specter of ethnic cleansing.”
Speaking at the opening of the UN General Assembly, Guterres urged world leaders to prevent the two state solution from disappearing.
“Violence, displacement and settlement expansion by Israel in the occupied West Bank are bulldozing the path to peace,” he said. “We cannot allow the two-state solution to disappear before our eyes.”
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict dominated the opening of a high-level UN week already overshadowed by wars in Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar. Leaders were also expected to discuss climate change, economic hardship, global inequality and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, reported by Arab News.
Guterres said the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 and the destruction that followed in Gaza had created one of the gravest crises of his tenure.
“It is nearly three years since the abhorrent terror attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7,” he said. “But what followed was an onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza with a scale of killing and destruction unlike anything I’ve witnessed in my years as secretary general.”
About 130 heads of state and government are expected to address the 193-member General Assembly during the week. US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron were scheduled to speak on Tuesday, followed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to speak on Thursday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will address the assembly by video after the United States refused to grant him a visa.
The absence of several major leaders also drew attention. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet Trump in Washington but will send his vice-president to the UN. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are also not attending.
France’s UN ambassador, Jérôme Bonnafont, said the gathering was a chance for countries to reaffirm their support for dialogue and cooperation at a time of growing global division.
The UN itself is facing serious challenges. It has struggled to influence major conflicts, while unpaid US contributions have placed additional pressure on its finances. Reform of the Security Council is also being discussed, although agreement on implementation remains difficult.
Artificial intelligence has emerged as another urgent concern. The UN Security Council is due to hold a high-level meeting on AI, amid fears that the technology is advancing faster than efforts to regulate it.
For Guterres, whose second term ends in December, this is his final General Assembly opening. He said the world was entering an era of “deep uncertainty” and warned that international cooperation was more necessary than ever.
