The head of the United states urged world leaders on Tuesday to choose a future where the rule of law prevails over absolute authority and where states unite rather than compete for their own interests, as global peace and progress are under threat.
The choice between peace and war, law and lawlessness, cooperation and conflict, is “more urgent, more intertwined, more unforgiving,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the opening of the General Assembly, which is an annual gathering of world leaders. He said that the same questions were faced by the UN’s founders eight decades ago.
During his yearly “state of the world” address, he declared, We have entered an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering.” The foundations of progress and peace are collapsing beneath the weight of inequality, impunity, and apathy. Guterres asked all parties, including those in the assembly chamber, to cease supporting Sudan’s warring groups, saying that the leaders’ first duty is to choose peace. He did not name any nations.
He also used his sharpest language to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying that “nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people” and that the death toll and destruction in Gaza are the worst in his nearly nine years as secretary-general.
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