United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres used a visit to Cairo on Monday to warn that the war of words between Iran and the United States must not turn into a wider military escalation. Speaking to journalists after meetings with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, he called for maximum restraint and diplomatic solutions from all sides. He warned that if current sabre-rattling turned into a major mutual escalation, the situation in the region could get out of control.

Trade routes at the centre of the warning

Mr Guterres also pressed for navigational rights and freedoms to be fully restored in and around the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, two waterways on which global trade depends. He argued that the consequences of an overwhelming attack on Iran followed by an overwhelming Iranian response against Gulf countries would reach far beyond the region. Egypt, he noted, had repeatedly helped to open space for diplomacy when the region faced its most difficult moments, including through mediation between the United States and Iran.

Wider concerns raised in Cairo

The Cairo visit also covered Gaza, the West Bank, Sudan and Libya. Mr Guterres said he was deeply alarmed by expanding settlements, unrelenting evictions and surging settler violence in the West Bank, and he repeated that a two-state solution remained the only viable path, with Gaza and the West Bank as integral parts of a Palestinian state. On Sudan, he said the fighting must stop, and on Libya he urged unified institutions and a path to national elections. The visit was his ninth to Egypt since he took office in 2017, and he leaves office at the end of the year.

Source: UN News