The UN Secretary-General called on Tuesday for “serious negotiations” to end the war in the Middle East that has “no military solution.”
“There is no military solution to this crisis. Peace agreements require persistent commitment and political will. Serious negotiations must resume,” Antonio Guterres said at a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, referring to last weekend’s talks between Tehran and Washington in Pakistan.
“In the meantime, the ceasefire between the United States and Iran ‘must be preserved,’ and freedom of navigation must be ‘respected by all parties,’ including in the Strait of Hormuz,” he emphasized.
“It is time to show restraint and responsibility. It is time to prioritize diplomacy over escalation,” he added, advocating above all for respect for international law now “trampled underfoot” worldwide.
“The disregard for the law creates chaos, the disregard for the law fuels suffering, the disregard for the law leads to destruction,” he warned.
Asked about the start of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon on Tuesday in Washington, dragged into the war by the Shiite Hezbollah movement, Antonio Guterres believed that “no one expects” them to “bring a solution to all the problems.”
“But ‘it will be very important if these talks create conditions for a change in the behavior of the actors,’ he hoped, accusing Israel and Hezbollah of ‘mutually helping each other’ so far ‘to destabilize the government of Lebanon’ by justifying each other’s actions.”
“It is time for Israel and Lebanon to work together, instead of having Lebanon as a victim of this negative conjunction of Hezbollah and Israel’s actions,” he pleaded.
AFP
