UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Sunday said he regrets the Security Council's failure to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, condemning the divisions that have "paralysed" the world body.
Addressing Qatar's Doha Forum, Guterres said the council was "paralysed by geostrategic divisions" that were undermining solutions to the Israel-Hamas war which started on October 7.
The body's "authority and credibility were severely undermined" by its delayed response to the conflict, he said two days after a US veto prevented a resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire.
"I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared," he told the forum.
"Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it," he added.
"I can promise, I will not give up."
Guterres had convened an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after two months of fighting that have left more than 17,700 people dead in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
The secretary-general deployed the rarely-used Article 99 of the United Nations Charter to bring to the council's attention "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security".
The rule had not previously been invoked by a UN chief in decades.
"We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system," Guterres told the Doha Forum.
"The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region."
The Israel-Hamas war was triggered by deadly attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.
The militants poured over the border into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240 others, according to Israeli officials.
Agencies add: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the Security Council is “paralyzed by geostrategic divisions,” which hinders the formulation of effective solutions to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
Addressing Qatar’s Doha Forum on Sunday, Guterres expressed his disappointment regarding the Council’s inability to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“UNSC is paralyzed by geopolitical divisions, its credibility undermined by the inability to pass a resolution urging a Gaza ceasefire,” Guterres said.
“Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it…I can promise, I will not give up,” he said two days after the UN Security Council vote on a humanitarian pause, which the US vetoed, and the UK abstained from.
“We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system,” Guterres told the Doha Forum.
He added that the situation is becoming “catastrophic” in Gaza and warned against “irreversible implications” for Palestinians.
“The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region.”
Also speaking at the Doha Forum, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh blamed the United States for Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza.
“For the United States to block a United Nations Security Council resolution, one should hold the Americans responsible” for the deadly violence, he said.
