The ocean is under siege – and greed is to blame. UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday urged world leaders and grassroots groups to confront the powerful interests driving marine destruction, from illegal fishing and plastic pollution to the accelerating impacts of climate change. Mr. Guterres’ stark assessment came during a press conference on the second day of the UN ocean summit, known as UNOC3, where hundreds of government leaders, scientists and civil society groups are gathered on France’s Côte D’Azur. Their mission: to confront the escalating emergency facing the world’s oceans.

Secretary-General António Guterres urged world leaders to revive efforts toward a two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, warning that there is no alternative. “It is absolutely essential to keep alive the two-State solution perspective with all the terrible things we are witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank,” Mr. Guterres told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York. “And for those that doubt about the two-State solution, I ask: What is the alternative? Is it a one-state solution in which either the Palestinians are expelled or forced to live in their land without rights?”

UN Secretary-General urged world powers to uphold international maritime law and overcome geopolitical rivalries, warning that growing threats are endangering global trade, marine ecosystems and international peace. Addressing a high-level debate of the Security Council, António Guterres said that oceans and seas are “sending a clear SOS,” as maritime spaces face escalating pressure from both traditional threats and new dangers – including piracy, armed robbery, trafficking, terrorism, cyberattacks and territorial disputes. “From time immemorial, maritime routes have bound the world together,” he said.

The United Nations will never forget the staff members killed nearly 23 years ago in the attack on its headquarters in Iraq, the Secretary-General said in the capital. António Guterres was speaking during a wreath-laying ceremony at a memorial in Baghdad to honour the victims of the 19 August 2003 Canal Hotel bombing - the worst terrorist attack in UN history. Twenty-two people were killed, including the then UN Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.  More than 100 others were injured, and several survivors attended the ceremony.

UN Secretary-General renewed his call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and upheld the need for a two-State solution between Israelis and Palestinians, in a speech on Saturday to the League of Arab States Summit in Baghdad. António Guterres told leaders meeting in the Iraqi capital that “the region and the world face trials and tests on all fronts,” starting with the situation in Gaza. He reiterated that neither the atrocious 7 October 2023 terror attacks by Hamas nor the collective punishment of the Palestinian people can be justified.