{"id":43894,"date":"2026-01-31T00:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/homeland-news.net\/?p=43894"},"modified":"2026-01-31T00:14:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:14:49","slug":"special-report-antonio-guterres-acknowledges-uns-limited-leverage-amid-global-impunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homeland-news.net\/?p=43894","title":{"rendered":"Special Report: Ant\u00f3nio Guterres Acknowledges UN\u2019s Limited Leverage Amid Global Impunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Full Video of the Press Conference by the United Nations Secretary General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/a><\/p>\n

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Ahmed Fathi -ATN News |@UNTV<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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UNHQ, New York:<\/em><\/strong> U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres used his final annual start-of-year press conference on Thursday to draw hard legal and institutional lines around the role of the United Nations, warning that the world is entering a period of escalating disorder driven by impunity, unchecked power and the erosion of multilateral authority. <\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Speaking at U.N. headquarters in New York, Guterres framed 2026 as a year already defined by \u201csurprises and chaos,\u201d arguing that international law is increasingly ignored while the institutions created to uphold it lack the leverage to enforce compliance.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe law of power is prevailing over the power of law,\u201d he said. \u201cInternational law is trampled. Cooperation is eroding. And multilateral institutions are under assault.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Guterres anchored his remarks in an analogy drawn from his background in physics, invoking Newton\u2019s Third Law \u2014 action and reaction \u2014 to argue that in geopolitics today, reactions are no longer stabilizing or predictable. Instead, reckless actions, he said, are multiplied by geopolitical divisions, inequality and a growing culture of impunity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Global governance structures, he warned, remain \u201cout of time,\u201d reflecting power realities from 80 years ago even as economic influence steadily shifts toward emerging economies and South-South trade. Reform, he said, is unavoidable \u2014 but the values enshrined in the U.N. Charter are not.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That framing set the tone for a wide-ranging question-and-answer session in which journalists repeatedly tested where the United Nations draws its legal boundaries.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Valeria Robecco President of UNCA |@UNTV<\/em><\/figcaption>
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The atmosphere in the room carried both urgency and finality. This was Guterres\u2019 last customary January exchange with the international press corps, and the session opened on a personal note when Valeria Robecco President of UNCA paused to salute Reuters correspondent Michelle Nichols, prompting applause for Nichols\u2019 14 years covering the United Nations.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Michelle Nichols -Reuters |@UNTV<\/em><\/figcaption>
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Asked by Michelle Nichols of Reuters on whom he meant by warning that global problems cannot be solved by \u201cone power calling the shots,\u201d Guterres pointed to the United States as the world\u2019s most powerful country and cautioned against a future divided into rival U.S.- and China-led spheres of influence. Stability, he argued, depends on a networked form of multipolarity supported by strong multilateral institutions, not unilateral dominance.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But when reporters pressed on enforcement, Guterres acknowledged the organization\u2019s limits. Responding to Pamela Falk of U.S. News and World Report, he said the United Nations lacks the power to compel compliance by states that violate international law.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cUnfortunately, there is one thing that we miss,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s leverage.\u201d A moment later, reflecting on conflicts from Gaza to Ukraine, he added quietly, \u201cI would like to have the power to make them stop.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Edith Lederer -The Associated Press | @UNTV<\/em><\/figcaption>
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That tension \u2014 legal authority without coercive force \u2014 dominated exchanges on Gaza. Edith Lederer of The Associated Press asked about concerns that President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d could sideline the Security Council\u2019s authority, particularly regarding Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Guterres responded by drawing a firm institutional line, stressing that only the Security Council holds Charter-mandated authority to adopt binding decisions on peace and security and to authorize the use of force. He described the current ceasefire in Gaza as a fragile \u201clesser fire,\u201d saying it has reduced violence but fallen short of ending it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A lasting solution, he said, requires full Israeli withdrawal, the decommissioning of armed groups and a credible path toward a two-state solution.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow-up questions from Biesan Abu Kwaik of Al Jazeera Arabic focused on settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank. Guterres said he is \u201cdetermined\u201d to oppose actions undermining the two-state framework, including settlements, demolitions and settler attacks, and stressed that Gaza\u2019s future governance must be linked to the Palestinian Authority.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Accountability was raised by Ibtisam Azem of Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, who cited the killing of hundreds of UNRWA staff and Israel\u2019s restrictions on the agency. Guterres said the United Nations has taken clear positions of condemnation, referenced relevant International Court of Justice findings, and called for accountability while insisting UNRWA will continue operating despite political pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Legal red lines resurfaced in questions on self-determination. Denis of Ukraine asked whether the principle applies to Crimea and Donbas. Guterres said the U.N. Office of Legal Affairs has concluded it does not, and that Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity prevails.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The issue was tested again in the Middle East context when Namo Abdulla of Rudaw Media Network asked whether the international community should recognize Kurdish autonomy or self-determination in Syria, citing Kurdish forces\u2019 role in defeating ISIS and their concerns about new power structures in Damascus.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Guterres acknowledged a long history of persecution against Syrian Kurds but rejected a military or separatist solution. The answer, he said, lies in inclusive political institutions within a unified Syrian state, not in fragmentation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy main objective,\u201d he said, \u201cis to create conditions for societies in which all components feel their rights are respected and feel that they belong to the country as a whole.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Iran returned later in the briefing as reporters pressed on repression and accountability.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Camelia Entekhabifard of Independent Persian questioned why the Secretary-General has not publicly called for Iran to accept a fact-finding mission into protest killings. Guterres drew a clear procedural boundary, saying such investigations fall under the mandate of the Human Rights Council, not the Secretariat, while affirming that any decision by the council would have full U.N. support.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sudan emerged as one of the starkest examples of the United Nations\u2019 constraints. Gabriel Elizondo of Al Jazeera English asked how the organization plans to change the trajectory of what Guterres has repeatedly described as the world\u2019s largest humanitarian crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Guterres said he and envoy Ramtane Lamamra are intensifying efforts to secure temporary ceasefires and demilitarized zones to allow humanitarian access. But he warned that Sudan has become a \u201cplayground\u201d for external actors supplying weapons and prolonging the conflict, complicating any path to peace.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Technology was one of the few areas where Guterres outlined a forward-looking initiative. Asked by Ahmed Fathi of ATN News whether the United Nations has leverage over technology companies shaping elections and conflicts, Guterres answered plainly: \u201cWe do not have leverage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead, he said, the organization is building governance tools, including a high-level scientific panel on artificial intelligence drawn from more than 2,400 candidates and an annual global dialogue aimed at establishing guardrails to preserve human agency. He reiterated his call for a $3 billion global fund to build AI capacity in developing countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pressed by Nada Tawfic of the BBC on what those guardrails should include, Guterres said the central principle must be human control, opposing autonomous weapons and warning of a \u201cmassive transfer of power\u201d from governments to private companies driven by control of data.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The session closed with questions about leadership and succession. Marta Moreira of Lusa, Portugal\u2019s national news agency, asked whether it would be a failure if the next secretary-general is not a woman. Speaking in Portuguese, Guterres said it is \u201cclearly time\u201d for the United Nations \u2014 and global powers \u2014 to be led by women, while stressing that the decision rests with member states.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Asked by Arul Louis of Indo-Asian News Service about his legacy, Guterres dismissed the notion.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m doing my duty,\u201d he said. \u201cLegacies are the appreciation of others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Throughout the roughly 75-minute exchange, the atmosphere in the briefing room reflected a mix of urgency and familiarity. Questions moved across regions and crises \u2014 from Gaza and the West Bank to Ukraine, Iran, Sudan and Syria \u2014 and into broader debates over self-determination, accountability, technology governance and the limits of multilateral enforcement. The tone was persistent but measured, with correspondents pressing the Secretary-General on legal authority rather than ideology. Guterres answered with a measured frankness, often pausing to spell out what the U.N. can legally do and where its authority stops, while openly acknowledging the political limits it faces \u2014 a dynamic that made clear to everyone in the room that the organization is being asked to do more in a world that is <\/span>steadily narrowing its room to maneuver.<\/span><\/p>\n