UN chief Guterres's quiet diplomacy tested by Ukraine and Gaza wars

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has faced sharp limits on his ability to end major wars during his tenure, as quiet diplomacy and humanitarian initiatives have yielded mixed results in Ukraine and Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

Ukraine and the limits of mediation

Guterres condemned Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and urged President Vladimir Putin to withdraw troops. In April, he met Putin to discuss evacuation routes from besieged areas such as Mariupol, and later met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In 2022, he brokered the Black Sea grain deal, allowing safe passage for Ukrainian grain exports and Russian food and fertiliser.

But political progress stalled. In 2024, Zelenskyy spurned Guterres's planned visit to Kyiv after the UN chief attended the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, where he shook Putin's hand and called for a "just peace". Putin was wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, and Guterres's decision drew criticism from Ukrainian officials, European leaders and human rights groups.

Gaza, Article 99 and isolation

After the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,100 Israelis and foreign nationals, Guterres drew sharp condemnation from Israeli leaders for saying the attack "did not happen in a vacuum". He clarified that Palestinian grievances could not justify the attacks by Hamas, while pushing for a ceasefire. Israel responded with heavy bombardment of Gaza, including attacks on hospitals, refugee camps and "safe zones". An estimated 75,000 Palestinians had been violently killed by early 2025, and a UN independent Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel rejects.

On December 6, 2023, Guterres invoked the rarely used Article 99 of the UN Charter to bring the Gaza crisis to the Security Council and call for a ceasefire. Two days later, the United States vetoed the resolution. In October 2024, Israel declared him persona non grata, accusing him of failing to "unequivocally condemn" Iran's missile attack on Israel.

Constraints and quiet diplomacy

Guterres has failed to make significant progress in Gaza or Ukraine, Al Jazeera notes, partly due to the job's constraints: he cannot impose settlements without cooperation from the parties involved and backing from major powers, and the Security Council remains divided. A 2021 International Crisis Group assessment found some officials involved in Middle East mediation viewed him as reluctant to expend personal political capital on risky peace initiatives.

He prefers envoys, humanitarian advocacy and regional delegations over high-stakes personal mediation. After the collapse of 2017 Cyprus reunification talks and a 2019 Libya visit that ended with a rebel offensive on Tripoli, he showed less inclination to be directly involved, according to Crisis Group's Daniel Forti. Guterres has called world peace "a Sisyphean task".

Climate and AI focus

He has channelled energy into climate, warning in 2022 that "half of humanity is in the danger zone" and that the choice is "collective action or collective suicide". Brazilian climate activist Paloma Costa, who served on his youth advisory group, said he listened to young people and pressured global discussions. He has called for windfall taxes on fossil fuels—"polluters must pay"—and praised the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, though it remains severely underfunded. He has avoided naming specific countries.

Since 2023, Guterres has pushed for international AI safeguards and a legally binding ban on lethal autonomous weapons, warning in July that AI could be humanity's greatest opportunity or danger.

Source: Al Jazeera.