António Guterres addressed the Council’s first quarterly debate on the Middle East for the year, held against the backdrop of Sunday’s temporary ceasefire in Gaza, the end of hostilities in Lebanon sparked by the war, and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres (right) meets UN peacekeepers from Sri Lanka in Naqoura in southern Lebanon.
‘New dawn’ in Lebanon
On Lebanon, the Secretary-General reported that “a new dawn is rising” in the country, “with a government hopefully soon in place where all Lebanese will feel represented, and a State that will be able to guarantee security to all its citizens.”
During his recent visit, Mr. Guterres travelled to the south where he saw firsthand “the dramatic human impact and destruction” caused by 13 months of hostilities between Hamas militants and Israeli forces.
The Governments of Lebanon and Israel signed a ceasefire agreement last November, which he said is fragile but still holding.
“It is vital that the Israeli presence in the south ends as defined in the agreement, and that the Lebanese Armed Forces are present in the totality of Lebanon,” he said
‘Flame of hope’ in Syria
Mr. Guterres also addressed the situation in Syria.
“Following the fall of the brutal previous regime and years of bloodshed, there is a possibility of promise for the people of Syria,” he said. “We cannot let the flame of hope turn into an inferno of chaos.”
He said the UN is committed to working with Syrians and the international community to support a Syrian-led process towards a credible and inclusive political transition.
“As Syria travels a new path and seeks to rebuild its institutions and political systems, we will support an inclusive process in which the rights of all are fully respected, and that paves the way towards a united and sovereign Syria with its territorial integrity fully reestablished,” he said.