Guterres warns of 'unparalleled combination of threats' in final UN address
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term ends this year, used his last General Assembly speech to call for an end to Middle East wars, a restructured Security Council and global rules against 'killer robots.'
RastinewsUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the general debate of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York by warning that mechanisms for collective action are under growing strain at a time when humanity faces an unparalleled combination of threats.
The speech carries added weight because Guterres steps down at the end of the year. According to the Associated Press, he said the world's fault lines are widening, pointing to ongoing wars, rising temperatures and artificial intelligence.
"Enough is enough"
Guterres said conflicts in the Middle East are feeding off one another, and that declared ceasefires have amounted to little more than "mini-truces" in which civilians keep paying the price. He urged leaders in the hall to use the high-level week to the fullest for de-escalation and dialogue.
He said Palestinians in Gaza have suffered killing and destruction unlike anything he has witnessed during his time as Secretary-General. Israel's violence, displacement and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, he said, are closing off paths to peace and raising the danger of ethnic cleansing. "We cannot allow the two-state solution to disappear before our eyes," Guterres said.
"Superpowers are discovering the limits of power"
Guterres said the world is moving into a multipolar order and that this shift is irreversible. Taking aim at power politics, he said major powers must accept that their strength is not as absolute as they believe, adding that recent years have shown military force alone cannot secure peace.
He called for the UN Security Council to be restructured to reflect today's world, noting that Africa still has no permanent seat on the Council. "A Security Council without permanent African representation in the 21st century is unjust and indefensible," he said.
"Killer robots have no place in our future"
Guterres said artificial intelligence has become a "game-changer," stressing that the danger lies not in the technology itself but in technology deployed without accountability, oversight or transparency.
He called for an international framework to manage AI risk and for limits on autonomous weapons. "Decisions of life and death should never be left to machines," he said. "Killer robots have no place in our future."
Search for a successor continues
Guterres delivered the address roughly 100 days before leaving office. The process to choose his successor is under way, with candidacies, dialogues with candidates and Security Council consultations continuing.
He closed by saying he would keep defending the belief that peace is possible everywhere, and would continue to stand behind the values of the UN Charter.
Per the AP, this year's high-level meetings will be dominated by the wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar.
Background: a decade-long tenure draws to a close
Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015.
He took office as UN Secretary-General on January 1, 2017, and was re-elected for a second five-year term. That term ends on December 31.