The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Monday's General Assembly that the world is heading “wide-eyed” towards “a wider war” as the “risks of escalation” in Ukraine grow.
Guteress offered a bleak outlook for 2023 "with a convergence of challenges never seen in our lifetime in our sights" such as climate change, extreme poverty and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The UN chief called on the organisation "to wake up and get to work” as "the prospects for peace are getting smaller and smaller and the risks of further escalation and bloodshed keep increasing."
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He also expressed his fears that "the world is not sleepwalking its way to a wider war, but I fear that it is in fact doing so with its eyes wide open," with increased threats to peace such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and current situations in Afghanistan.
Guterres asked all those present to view the Doomsday Clock's recent estimation that humanity has never been closer to the end of the world as a necessary wake-up call.
