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\u0639\u0631\u0628\u064a<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Fran\u00e7ais<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n THE SECRETARY-GENERAL <\/strong><\/p>\n REMARKS TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL ON THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST INCLUDING THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION<\/strong><\/p>\n New York, 23 September 2025<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n [all-English]<\/strong><\/p>\n 23 September 2025<\/p>\n Following are UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres\u2019 remarks to the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the question of Palestine, in New York today:<\/strong><\/p>\n We are confronting one of the darkest chapters of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nearly two years after the horrific Hamas terror attacks of 7 October 2023 and the devastating Israeli military response that followed, the violence has only deepened across the Occupied Palestinian Territory \u2014 with grave threats to regional and global peace and security.<\/p>\n The Israeli military onslaught in Gaza City is compounding an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Countless Palestinian civilians and the remaining hostages are trapped under relentless bombardment and deprived of food, water, electricity and medicine.<\/p>\n Famine is a reality \u2014 with the population constantly forced to move and being starved. To call this situation untenable and morally and legally indefensible does not begin to capture the scale of human suffering.<\/p>\n I have repeatedly appealed for an immediate permanent ceasefire; the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages; and immediate, unconditional and unhindered humanitarian access.<\/p>\n UN resolutions continue to be ignored. International humanitarian law violated. Impunity prevails. And our collective credibility is being undermined.<\/p>\n The violence is spreading from Gaza into the Occupied West Bank, and beyond, including several countries in the region \u2014 and recently even Qatar. Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal \u2014 led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States \u2014 suffered a serious blow on 9 September.<\/p>\n The Israeli attack was not only a violation of Qatar\u2019s sovereignty and territorial integrity, it also threatened the very norms and mechanisms we rely on for diplomacy and conflict resolution.<\/p>\n The viability of a two-State solution is steadily eroding, now reaching its most critical level in more than a generation. Relentless settlement-expansion, de facto annexation, forced displacement.<\/p>\n Cycles of deadly violence, including by extremist settlers, have entrenched an unlawful Israeli occupation and pushed us perilously close to a point of no return.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s recent approval of settlement construction in the E1 area is especially alarming. If implemented, it would sever the Occupied West Bank \u2014 destroying the territorial contiguity of a Palestinian State. Israeli settlements are not just a political issue \u2014 they are a flagrant violation of international law.<\/p>\n At the same time, the Palestinian Authority is facing an existential crisis. Fiscal, political and institutional pressures are undermining its ability to function.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s withholding of clearance revenues, the suffocation of the Palestinian economy and a sharp decline in donor aid have left the Palestinian Authority unable to pay salaries or deliver basic services. Urgent international support \u2014 financial and political \u2014 is needed to stabilize the Palestinian Authority and preserve its viability as a partner for peace.<\/p>\n And yet, amid the darkness, a glimmer of hope emerged yesterday with the resumption of the High-Level International Conference on a Two-State Solution<\/a>. I commend France and Saudi Arabia for co-chairing this important meeting \u2014 and for helping to reignite political momentum.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n