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The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
David R Martin\/AP Photo\/David R Martin<\/p>\n
UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 The world is deeply divided and the U.N.\u2019s most powerful body is paralyzed when it comes to ending conflicts. But there\u2019s a way forward. So says the United Nations\u2019 top official.<\/p>\n
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On his way out of office at year’s end after nearly a decade, U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres \u2014 known for doom-and-gloom speeches about the state of the planet \u2014 said Thursday he finds hope and possibility in the coming years. But that, he says, is only if the world\u2019s governments can finally cooperate on curtailing conflict, upending inequality and grappling with the arriving juggernaut of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI believe in a number of fundamental things that need to be done, and need to happen for the world to be better \u2014 and I\u2019m determined to fight to make those things happen,\u201d Guterres told The Associated Press in a sit-down interview four days before world leaders convene for their annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly.<\/p>\n
His message to leaders and ministers from the U.N.\u2019s 193 member nations coming to U.N. headquarters was no-nonsense: You need to very seriously analyze the fact that the world is facing at least three existential problems — runaway artificial intelligence, galloping climate change, and escalating inequality that is becoming a serious driver of instability and conflict.<\/p>\n
Guterres also warned that the \u201chuge geopolitical divide\u201d and paralysis in the Security Council have created an environment of impunity with powerful countries flouting international law and the U.N. Charter. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the attacks on Iran by the United States, both veto-wielding council members, are examples.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMany countries say, \u2018If superpowers can violate the law, why can\u2019t we?\u2019\u201d the secretary-general said. \u201cAnd so what we are seeing around the world is more and more situations in which countries simply do not care. They do whatever they want, knowing that there will be total impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behavior by nations, he says, is adding fuel to the fire<\/p>\n
The violations and impunity have caused death and enormous destruction, he said, and the combination of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the broader Middle East conflict are having \u201ca dramatic impact\u201d on the world economy. Food and energy prices are going up, interest rates are rising and developing countries face enormous difficulties in responding to the needs of their people.<\/p>\n
He expressed hope that these problems will force people to realize that the obstacles can\u2019t be eliminated alone and require international cooperation.<\/p>\n
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That’s especially true, he said, with reforms of the institutions formed by the victorious World War II powers \u2014 the U.N., especially the Security Council, and the major global financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. They must be overhauled to reflect the realities of the 21st century world where there are emerging economies and powers, he said, and their importance must be reflected in global institutions.<\/p>\n
As U.N. chief, the secretary-general has no army, no intelligence service and not much money. But, Guterres said, he has two powers \u2014 to speak out on global issues and to convene the world\u2019s nations.<\/p>\n
Because of geopolitical divides, Guterres said the United Nations has \u201cno leverage\u201d on promoting peace in Ukraine and the Middle East. But he said he has been firm in defending the U.N. Charter and the territorial integrity of countries, and in condemning \u201chorrible violations of human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
He condemned Hamas\u2019 \u201cintolerable\u201d attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and he also condemned \u201cthe horrible situation that Israel has created in Gaza with levels of death and destruction that have no parallel in the history of the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The United Nations is not \u201cin a transactional approach to politics,\u201d he stressed. It must be \u201ca reference of values and principles for the whole world, because someone must affirm that the law of force cannot prevail over the force of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat, of course, sometimes limits our capacity to negotiate an agreement because one of the sides is a clear violator that doesn\u2019t like to listen to the truth. But that will never, never make us move away from what are the values in which a civilized society must be based,\u201d the U.N. chief said.<\/p>\n
He says the AI revolution is sure to loom over this year’s UNGA leaders’ meeting<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s global gathering is also certain to spotlight the future of the U.N. and the threat of AI getting out of human control.<\/p>\n
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Guterres has called for international cooperation and guardrails for AI, which he called \u201ca universal problem.\u201d To deal with the escalating problem, he said, countries developing AI at \u201ca higher capacity\u201d should exchange information, establish mechanisms for transparency, have some guardrails and \u201chelp create what ideally would be a multilateral mechanism to guarantee that risks can be avoided.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the United Nations., it has serious financial issues, largely due to the U.S. failure to pay billions of dollars to its regular operating budget and the separate budget for the U.N.\u2019s far-flung peacekeeping operations. But it has avoided a financial meltdown and is in the throes of major reforms, which the Trump administration has pressed for.<\/p>\n
Even with less resources, Guterres said, the U.N. has been able to maintain its activities, \u201cand I think we demonstrated that we have the best control of public expenditure in any organization of any country in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guterres has dealt with U.S. President Donald Trump for nearly six of his 10 years at the helm of the U.N., and he stressed the importance of the U.S.-U.N. relationship, which he said has sometimes been difficult, sometimes easier. Now, he said, the U.N. is cooperating with the U.S. on peace negotiations in the Western Sahara and other parts of the world.<\/p>\n
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When he meets Trump on Tuesday, the opening day of the global gathering, Guterres said he plans to raise peace in Ukraine and the Middle East, \u201cand I hope that these two objectives might be able to unite the efforts of not only the U.S. and the U.N. but the whole of the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United Nations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[99672,145,152270,31231,64644,23681,59373,59371,59372,61262,82,84,83,10487,152269],"class_list":["post-439744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-antonio-guterres","tag-donald-trump","tag-edith-m-lederer","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-ukraine","tag-united-nations-secretary-general-guterres-unga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}