UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday praised Pakistan’s efforts to promote the peaceful resolution of disputes through the UN Security Council (UNSC), saying the initiative was especially significant as conflicts continue to intensify across the Middle East and other regions.
Speaking during an open UNSC debate held under Pakistan-sponsored Resolution 2788 (2025), Guterres outlined recommendations aimed at strengthening diplomacy, mediation and conflict prevention as key tools for maintaining international peace and security.
The resolution, introduced by Pakistan during its presidency of the Security Council last year and adopted unanimously, seeks to reinforce peaceful methods of resolving disputes under the UN Charter, including negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and judicial settlement.
Pakistan has consistently argued that diplomacy should be used to prevent conflicts before they escalate rather than only after violence erupts.
Addressing the worsening situation in the Middle East, Guterres warned that military action could not bring lasting peace.
“As conflicts escalate across the Middle East and beyond, military solutions cannot deliver lasting peace,” Guterres said, calling for restraint, protection of civilians and renewed commitment to diplomacy.
He cautioned that the regional crisis was rapidly worsening.
“The situation is getting out of control. It’s teetering on the edge of the unimaginable,” the secretary-general warned, noting that the region was being “pulled into another widening circle of confrontation.”
Guterres said escalating conflicts were feeding one another.
“One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,” he said, adding that as this dynamic spreads, “the political objectives are becoming increasingly obscured by the confrontation itself.”
Calling for an end to the violence, the UN chief stressed the need to protect civilians and preserve freedom of navigation.
“It’s time to step back,” Guterres said, stressing that “attacks on civilian infrastructure are unacceptable” and that “there’s no military solution to the conflict.”
“Fighting must stop everywhere in the region,” he said, while calling for the restoration of “international navigational rights and freedoms in and around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab.”
“Diplomacy is the only way forward,” the UN chief added.
Guterres also acknowledged Pakistan’s diplomatic role in regional peace efforts.
“I want to recognise the mediation of Pakistan and countries in the region working to reduce tensions and create space for dialogue.”
“These efforts must be supported and strengthened in pursuit of a peaceful and durable settlement,” he said.
The secretary-general also voiced concern over developments in the occupied West Bank, saying:
“We see creeping annexation with violence, settlement expansion, extensive Israeli military operations and large-scale displacement.”
Pakistan welcomes recommendations
Pakistan welcomed the secretary-general’s proposals, with the country’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, describing them as “thoughtful, practical and forward-looking.”
Addressing the Security Council, Ahmad said implementing the recommendations would strengthen mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of disputes while reinforcing the principles of the UN Charter.
“These recommendations carry significance far beyond today’s meeting,” he said, adding that they could help “restore conflict prevention and resolution to its rightful place, at the heart of the United Nations, and translate the promise of Chapter VI into practice.”
He said Resolution 2788 was based on the principle that diplomacy should serve as a preventive tool rather than a last resort.
The ambassador argued that the main challenge was not a lack of mechanisms under the UN Charter but their “delayed, selective and inconsistent use,” noting that the Security Council often intervened only after conflicts had escalated and opportunities for compromise had diminished.
Ahmad reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to resolving disputes peacefully and pointed to Islamabad’s recent diplomatic engagement in West Asia, saying Pakistan, alongside partner countries, had played a constructive mediating role between Iran and the United States to facilitate dialogue.
He expressed regret over renewed hostilities and urged all parties to return to negotiations, saying that whenever peace efforts falter, “the answer is not in less but more determined diplomacy.”
The Pakistani envoy also called for stronger follow-up mechanisms for Security Council resolutions, greater use of mediation and fact-finding tools, increased support for the secretary-general’s good offices, and closer cooperation between the UN and regional organisations.
He said the true measure of Resolution 2788 would lie not in its unanimous adoption but in its effective implementation.
“History documents the wars that broke out. It rarely records the war that did not begin because a channel remained open, a mediator persisted, a leader exercised restraint or an institution acted in time,” Ambassador Ahmad said, describing prevention and peaceful settlement as diplomacy’s greatest achievements.
