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antonio guterres
Demanding Peace Talks, UN Chief Warns Iran War 'Could Spiral Beyond Anyone's Control'
"It is time to stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations," said António Guterres. "The stakes could not be higher."
Mar 06, 2026
After nearly a week of bloodshed in President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war on Iran—which critics argued violates not only the US Constitution but also the United Nations Charter—UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday demanded a return to negotiations.
Trump and Netanyahu launched "Operation Epic Fury" just a day after Badr Albusaidi, the foreign minister of Oman and mediator of recent nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, said on a prominent US news program that "we have already achieved quite a substantial progress" and "the peace deal is within our reach."
The Iranian government said Thursday that at least 1,230 people had been killed in Iran. The US-Israeli assault continued on Friday, as Guterres declared that "all the unlawful attacks in the Middle East and beyond are causing tremendous suffering and harm to civilians throughout the region—and pose a grave a risk to the global economy, particularly to the most vulnerable people."
"The situation could spiral beyond anyone's control," Guterres said. "It is time to stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations. The stakes could not be higher."
The UN chief's statement came amid reporting from Drop Site News that "US-Israeli missiles have hit an elementary school in Tehran—the fourth school in six days." The first strike, for which no government has taken responsibility but analyses suggest the United States is to blame, killed around 175 people, mostly children, at a girls' school in Minab on Saturday. Then, on Thursday, two boys’ schools southwest of Tehran were bombed.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk also called for all parties "to give peace a chance," highlighting in a Friday statement that the war "has been spreading like wildfire" and caused significant damage in not only Iran and Israel, but "at least a dozen other countries, mostly in the Gulf, with risks of major economic and environmental ramifications across the world."
"The world urgently needs to see steps to contain and extinguish this blaze—but instead we are only seeing more inflammatory, bellicose rhetoric, more bombings, more destruction, killings, and escalation, that fuels it further," he continued. "Confusion has also been sown around international law—and some have openly derided the fundamental values of our common humanity."
While Türk directed his plea for deescalation at the warring governments, he also urged other states "to call clearly on those involved to pull back," arguing that "cool heads must prevail if we are to prevent further terror and devastation for civilians."
"Given the magnitude of this crisis," he said, "I call on heads of state and government around the world unequivocally to commit to defending international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and the UN Charter itself—we cannot afford for more powder kegs to ignite."
"Lebanon is becoming a key flashpoint," Türk noted. "I am extremely concerned and worried about the latest developments following Hezbollah's attacks on Israel and Israel's heavy counterstrikes, as well as its extensive displacement orders that have already forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. I call for an immediate cessation of hostilities."
More than half a million people have fled their homes in southern Lebanon, and the death toll there this week is estimated to be over 130 people, as Common Dreams reported earlier Friday. Türk has denounced Israel's "blanket, massive displacement orders" in the country that are impacting hundreds and thousands of Lebanese.
As one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the US has veto power in that body. Considering those circumstances, the group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) this week urged the UN General Assembly to formally declare Trump and Netanyahu's assault on Iran a "war of aggression" in violation of the charter.
"No legal framework, international or domestic, can justify this US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran," DAWN executive director Omar Shakir said in a statement. "This war is patently illegal, and it must be stopped."
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UN Leaders Warn Rule of Law Being Replaced by 'Rule of Force'
"We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away... where humans are used as bargaining chips... where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Feb 23, 2026
The secretary-general of the United Nations and the body's top human rights official did not call out world leaders by name as they warned that "impunity has become a contagion" among powerful governments at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council's annual session in Geneva on Monday.
But their comments appeared to allude to numerous recent actions by the Trump administration, whose officials have explicitly dismissed concerns about international law regarding the White House's foreign policy in recent months.
Secretary-General António Guterres warned global officials that "the rule of law is being out-muscled by the rule of force."
"This assault is not coming from the shadows. Or by surprise. It is happening in plain sight—and often led by those who hold the greatest power," said Guterres.
The leader's comments came nearly two months after President Donald Trump ordered an invasion of Venezuela, killing dozens of people, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and charging them with narcotics trafficking, and pushing to take control of the South American country's oil supply.
That operation as well as the United States' bombings of dozens of boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in recent months—also ostensibly to fight "narcoterrorism"—have been violations of international law, according to numerous legal experts, with the former violating the prohibition on the use of force in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter.
Trump officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, however, have claimed the US has the right to use military force against any country if doing so advances US interests.
"We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away... where humans are used as bargaining chips... where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience," said Guterres on Monday. "Conflicts are multiplying and impunity has become a contagion. That is not due to a lack of knowledge, tools, or institutions. It is the result of political choices."
The UN has directly condemned other policies by the Trump administration in recent weeks, including Trump's executive order threatening tariffs on any country that provides Cuba with oil as it baselessly accused the island nation's communist government of harboring terrorists, and Guterres has suggested Trump's creation of a "Board of Peace" to govern Gaza is akin to "one power calling the shots."
Guterres mentioned just two specific conflicts: Russia's war on Ukraine and the "blatant violations of human rights, human dignity, and international law in the occupied Palestinian territory," where the US-backed Israel Defense Forces have been waging war on Gaza and Israeli settlers have been carrying out increased violent attacks in the West Bank as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government pushes to further illegally annex the territory and make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible.
"The current trajectory is stark, clear, and purposeful: The two-state solution is being stripped away in broad daylight," said Guterres. "The international community cannot allow this to happen."
Regarding Ukraine, which will enter its fifth year of war with Russia on Tuesday and where more than 15,000 civilians have been killed, Guterres said, "It is more than past time to end the bloodshed."
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, added in his own remarks that "domination and supremacy are making a comeback."
"A fierce competition for power, control, and resources is playing out on the world stage at a rate and intensity unseen for the past 80 years," said Türk. "The use of force to resolve disputes between and within countries is becoming normalized."
Türk highlighted how "the gears of global power are shifting", calling for people to band together to protect rights and create "a strong counterbalance to the top-down, autocratic trends we see today".
Some world leaders, he said, are operating as though "they are above the law, and above the UN Charter."
"They claim exceptional status, exceptional danger, or exceptional moral judgement to pursue their own agenda at any cost," he said. "They spread disinformation to distract, silence, and marginalize."
Türk also warned that some leaders appear to "weaponize their economic leverage"—an apparent reference to Trump's decision to drastically cut foreign aid funding and withdraw from dozens of UN organizations last month, putting the international body at risk of "imminent financial collapse," as Guterres said at the time.
"Humanitarian needs are exploding while funding collapses," said Guterres on Monday. "Inequalities are widening at staggering speed. Countries are drowning in debt and despair. Climate chaos is accelerating... Across every front, those who are already vulnerable are being pushed further to the margins. And human rights defenders are among the first to be silenced when they try to warn us."
"In this coordinated offensive, human rights are the first casualty," he added, urging world leaders to "not let power write a new rulebook in which the vulnerable have no rights and the powerful have no limits."
"Let this be the place that helps end the broad and brutal assault on human rights," said Guterres. "Because a world that protects human rights protects itself."
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Bucking 'Huge Consensus' at India Summit, Trump Admin Opposes Global AI Guardrails
To date, Trump’s most notable artificial intelligence regulation has been his executive order against “woke AI."
Feb 20, 2026
As delegates from dozens of nations attending a key artificial intelligence summit in India prepare to deliver a statement Saturday on how humanity should handle development of the rapidly evolving technology, the Trump administration stood out for opposing centralized regulation of generative AI.
"We are barreling into the unknown. AI innovation is moving at the speed of light—outpacing our collective ability to fully understand it—let alone govern it," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday during his address to attendees at the AI Impact Summit.
"AI does not stop at borders—and no nation can fully grasp its implications on its own," Guterres continued. "If we want AI to serve humanity, policy cannot be built on guesswork. It cannot be built on hype or disinformation. We need facts we can trust—and share—across countries and across sectors."
"That is why the United Nations is building a practical architecture that puts science at the center of international cooperation on AI," he added. "And it starts with the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence."
The panel—whose creation was recommended in a 2024 report authored by a high-level advisory board created by Guterres—is calling for a global AI governance framework and shared standards and monitoring mechanisms.
Looking forward to Saturday's statement, Indian Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters Friday that "there is huge consensus on the declaration, we are just trying to maximize the number" of endorsing nations, which he said he hoped would top 80. The United States apparently will not be one of them.
"As the Trump administration has now said many times, we totally reject global governance of AI," White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios said in New Delhi. "We believe AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralized control."
Although Republican US lawmakers' bid to slip a 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation into the massive One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump last July was shot down in the Senate, a bill introduced last September by Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.) would, if passed, impose a temporary moratorium on state laws regulating artificial intelligence.
To date, Trump’s most notable artificial intelligence regulation has been his July 2025 executive order aimed at preventing “woke AI.” His other AI-related edicts have rolled back regulations, including some meager steps taken under former President Joe Biden to bolster safety.
As was the case during the breakneck nuclear arms race during the Cold War, US officials have attempted to justify unfettered AI development by claiming that guardrails would slow progress and give adversaries like China an edge. And as with thermonuclear weapons during the Cold War, experts warn that a poorly governed race toward general artificial intelligence—a hypothetical advanced AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge of any subject as well as or better than a typical human—could pose an existential threat to humanity.
With so much uncertainty—and potential danger—alongside the unprecedented promise of AI, an increasingly aware public favors caution. Majorities of respondents to poll after poll say they want more, not less, AI regulation.
While very real, existential threats posed by AI are still many years off. However, there are pressing concerns over AI that are affecting the world today. Guterres noted Friday that AI can "deepen inequality, amplify bias, and fuel harm."
"As AI’s energy and water demands soar, data centers and supply chains must switch to clean power—not shift costs to vulnerable communities," he continued.
"We must invest in workers so AI augments human potential—not replaces it," Guterres stressed. "We must protect people from exploitation, manipulation, and abuse. No child should be a test subject for unregulated AI."
"Real impact means technology that improves lives and protects the planet," he argued. "So let’s build AI for everyone—with dignity as the default setting. Let us be clear: Science informs, but humans decide."
"Our goal is to make human control a technical reality—not a slogan," Guterres added. "And that requires meaningful human oversight in every high-stakes decision... And it requires clear accountability, so responsibility is never outsourced to an algorithm."
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