UN Spokesperson Warns Security Council Credibility Eroded by Powerful States’ Violations of International Law

RIYADH: The United Nations’ credibility is being undermined by powerful nations that violate international law while holding seats on the Security Council, UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said during an appearance on Arab News’s “Frankly Speaking” program on the sidelines of the General Assembly high-level week in New York.

Dujarric rejected accusations of double standards against the UN chief, citing Guterres’s condemnations of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. military action against Iran, Israeli settlements, and human rights violations in Iran. He drew a distinction between the Secretary-General’s diplomatic role and the Security Council’s enforcement mandate, noting the Council remains deeply divided on critical issues.

Guterres is pressing for an expanded permanent membership to make the body “more credible, to make it more representative,” Dujarric said, urging that the Secretary-General’s record be judged on the totality of his statements rather than a single General Assembly address.

During the wide-ranging interview, Dujarric described Saudi Arabia as indispensable to a regional diplomatic solution and addressed Houthi attacks backed by Iran, the detention of UN staff, Palestinian statehood, obstacles to aid in Gaza, Lebanese sovereignty, and efforts to end the war in Sudan.

Pressed on why repeated condemnations have failed to halt Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and commercial shipping, Dujarric emphasized that the UN response extends beyond public statements. Yemen envoy Hans Grundberg has been pursuing a political process through engagement with Saudi officials, the Yemeni government, and the Houthis. He noted the consequences extend globally due to disruptions to international shipping.

“There are member states that have influence over the parties, including Iran, when it comes to the Houthis. They also need to play their role,” Dujarric said. He argued that military action has not resolved the conflict and called for a renewed commitment to political dialogue, stressing that any settlement requires the parties—particularly the Houthis—to negotiate an agreement.

The limits of UN leverage were laid bare by the continued detention of its own personnel. Asked about 73 staff members held by the Houthis—some since 2021—a colleague’s death in detention, and the seizure of UN facilities, Dujarric demanded their immediate release. While diplomacy has yet to secure results, he said previous achievements in Yemen should not be disregarded, warning that continued military action has increased civilian suffering and insecurity in southern Saudi Arabia, with attempted attacks on Riyadh. More than 110,000 civilians in Yemen are currently displaced, a situation he called “unacceptable.”

On the wider regional conflict, Dujarric was unequivocal about Saudi Arabia’s centrality. “By its geography, by its size, by its importance, [Saudi Arabia] is critical. They are the leading power in the neighborhood, so to speak. So, they are critical to a solution. They are critical to a diplomatic solution.”

He said Guterres has been involved in backchannel contacts and supports mediation efforts by Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Challenged on whether regional powers have displaced the UN from the center of mediation, Dujarric said the priority is identifying who has the leverage to bring parties together. Conflicts involving major powers like the U.S. or Russia can leave the Secretary-General with limited maneuvering room, he acknowledged, without eliminating the UN’s diplomatic or humanitarian role.

“The point is not for Antonio Guterres to get the headlines,” he said. “The point is to try to end this conflict in the best possible manner and in the quickest possible manner.”

As part of efforts to ease the crisis, Dujarric outlined a proposed UN mechanism to facilitate exports of food, energy, and fertilizers through the Strait of Hormuz, as well as the movement of essential supplies into the waterway. Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the UN Office for Project Services, is continuing contacts to secure agreement from the parties.

Saudi engagement was also central to preserving the prospect of Palestinian statehood despite deteriorating conditions in the West Bank. Dujarric said Guterres’s latest report raised the risk of ethnic cleansing regarding Palestinian civilians and Israeli settler activity.

“Just because the two-state solution appears to be further away doesn’t mean we can give up on it. We cannot afford to give up on it because, frankly, what is the alternate solution? More violence? More killing? A one-state solution?”

Asked about the New York Declaration a year on, Dujarric said it helped keep the two-state solution on the international agenda, noting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan’s attendance at the follow-up UN meeting. However, maintaining diplomatic attention has not changed realities on the ground; progress requires active engagement by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and others to reverse the deterioration.

In Gaza, Dujarric rejected the suggestion that the UN’s role is limited to condemnation and appeals. “What we’re doing is we have boots on the ground, so to speak; not military boots, but humanitarian boots.” Thousands of UN personnel—mostly Palestinians—remain in Gaza alongside hundreds of international staff, operating at great personal risk; colleagues have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and military operations.

The UN is working closely with stakeholders to expand humanitarian access but faces practical limits. “We don’t have the keys to the crossings from Israel into Gaza. We don’t control them.”

Asked what the failure to comply with International Court of Justice orders says about the international system, Dujarric said it calls into question member states’ adherence to the commitments they made upon joining the UN. He urged governments with influence to apply pressure in a unified direction for the safety of Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis alike.

In Lebanon, restoring state authority requires changes by both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah as the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) approaches the end of its mandate.

“We need to see an immediate stop to Israeli military activities in the south, which are hampering the efforts of the Lebanese Armed Forces to reassert their authority fully over the territory,” Dujarric said. “We also need to see Hezbollah cooperate and implement fully Resolution 1701, to allow the Lebanese state to have full authority over its own territory.”

UN peacekeepers will remain until their mandate expires and will continue assisting the Lebanese Armed Forces, he added, noting that some have lost their lives.

Turning to Sudan, Dujarric resisted characterizing diplomatic efforts as failed, arguing that doing so risks implying they have been abandoned. Envoy Pekka Haavisto has visited Sudan and is in New York for talks; a key challenge is aligning multiple peace initiatives so mediators work toward the same objective. Meanwhile, civilians are being brutalized, starved, and bombed in a struggle for power.

“One of the added challenges, of course, is that weapons continue to flow into Sudan, when the last thing Sudan needs more of are more drones or more guns.”

On wider UN challenges, Dujarric warned that escalating rhetoric from world leaders could fuel further conflict, contrasting such threats with Guterres’s appeals for de-escalation, dialogue, and diplomacy. For Global South nations questioning the UN’s relevance, he pointed to its operations in more than 160 countries supporting governments, civil society, and development, alongside advocacy for better representation in the Security Council and international financial institutions.

At the General Assembly, Dujarric cautioned against interpreting the absence of some leaders as diplomatic inactivity, noting attendance fluctuates and some leaders face domestic crises while talks in New York remain intense. He also criticized visa restrictions affecting participation, describing the denial of a visa to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as “deeply regrettable.” Sudan’s leader was also denied a visa, and the UN is pressing Washington to uphold its host-country agreement.

“People need to come here and they need to engage in diplomacy. And it’s hard to engage in diplomacy when not all of the players on the team are actually on the pitch.”

Asked what Guterres’s successor would inherit, Dujarric acknowledged financial challenges but said reforms to financial rules have helped avert the worst. “They will inherit a UN Secretariat that is dedicated, that is ready to continue full steam ahead and is determined.”

For Dujarric, the daily accounts of suffering in Sudan illustrate the personal toll of speaking publicly on these conflicts. He described the difficulty of briefing on people facing famine in displacement camps that are also coming under bombardment.

“My toughest briefing is, I think, when I speak about the cruelty imposed on the most vulnerable,” he said. His own distress, however, is tempered by the knowledge that those being bombed, attacked, and starved endure far greater hardship. That, he said, drives him “to ensure that their stories are not forgotten, that their voices are not forgotten.”

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