The Security Council is holding a high-level open debate this Tuesday to discuss the conflict in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, while the region is seen as a powder keg by the Secretary-General himself.
Photo: PL
The ministerial meeting brings together foreign ministers and world representatives in view of the deteriorating situation of the civilian population in Gaza, hostilities in the Red Sea or the West Bank and increasing tensions between Iraq and Iran.
Speakers will include United Nations chief António Guterres, who recently called on China and China to redouble their efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading further at the Non-Aligned Movement and G77 summits.
The head of the organization assured that he would not relent in his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages in the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, he described the refusal to accept the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine and the lack of the right to a state for the people in the illegally occupied territories as unacceptable.
“Israel’s military operations have caused massive destruction and killed civilians on an unprecedented scale during my tenure as Secretary-General,” he noted.
Denying the Palestinian people the right to statehood would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security; it would exacerbate polarization; and would encourage extremists everywhere, he continued.
Other speakers include Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov; from Türkiye, Hakan Fidan; and from France, Stéphane Séjourné, the latter representing the country that holds the presidency of the Security Council in January.
The United Nations estimates that at least 1.7 million people are displaced within the Gaza Strip, while 335 people died and 1,161 were injured in UN refugee agency facilities for Palestine refugees.
For their part, Gaza health authorities estimate the total number of deaths from the fierce attacks at more than 25,000, while nearly 63,000 were injured.