UN Chief Condemns Warsin Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan: Civilians Bear the Brunt

JAKARTA - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday condemned the growing number of governments and other groups that feel they are "entitled to a get out of jail free card," highlighting the wars in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip and Sudan.

"They can trample on international law. They can violate the Charter of the United Nations," Guterres told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, reported Reuters on September 25.

"They can invade other countries, destroy entire societies, or completely disregard the welfare of their own people. And nothing will happen," he continued.

"The level of impunity in the world is politically untenable and morally intolerable," the U.N. chief said.

With the nearly year-long war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in besieged Gaza threatening to engulf Lebanon, where Israel targeted more than a thousand Hezbollah targets on Monday, Guterres made an impassioned plea.

"Lebanon is on the brink of collapse," he said.

"The people of Lebanon – the people of Israel – and the people of the world – cannot allow Lebanon to become another Gaza," Secretary-General Guterres added.

Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022. The conflict has recently escalated, with Kyiv quickly seizing land in a high-stakes attack on August 6 on Russia's Kursk region, met with increased Russian drone and missile attacks.

"Civilians are paying the price, with the death toll rising and lives and communities destroyed," Secretary-General Guterres said, adding it was time for a just peace based on the UN Charter, international law and UN resolutions.

On Sudan, Secretary-General Guterres condemned the "brutal power struggle" between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that erupted into war in mid-April last year, ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.

"A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding as famine spreads. Yet outside forces continue to interfere without a unified approach to finding peace," he said.

Secretary-General Guterres' speech summed up the state of the world as unsustainable, but said the challenges faced were solvable.

"Geopolitical divisions continue to deepen. The planet continues to heat up. Wars rage with no clue how they will end. And nuclear attitudes and new weapons cast a dark shadow," he said.

"We are moving towards something unimaginable - a powder keg that risks swallowing the world," he concluded.