Impunity, inequality, other challenges risk engulfing world, Guterres tells UN

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25(AP): The head of the United Nations warned gathered leaders Tuesday that impunity, inequality and uncertainty are driving modern civilization toward "a powder keg that risks engulfing the world" - the latest clarion call from Antonio Guterres that the global situation is becoming intolerable and unsustainable.

"We can't go on like this," the secretary-general said in an alarming state-of-the-world address as he opened the annual high-level gathering of the U.N.'s 193 member nations.

He said the world is in "an era of epic transformation" and facing challenges never seen before, with geopolitical divisions deepening, the planet heating and wars raging in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere with no clue how they will end.

"We are edging towards the unimaginable - a powder keg that risks engulfing the world," Guterres told presidents, prime ministers and ministers in the vast General Assembly hall.

But he stopped short of saying hope was gone. "The challenges we face," he said, "are solvable."

Guterres wasn't the only one worried about the state of the world. "I cannot recall a time of greater peril than this," said King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Guterres called the situation in Gaza "a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it." He said escalating air attacks across the Israel-Lebanon border have put Lebanon "at the brink." In Ukraine, he said, there is no sign of an end to the war that followed Russia's February 2022 invasion. In Sudan, he said, "a brutal power struggle has unleashed horrific violence," including widespread rape, and a "humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding as famine spreads."

The U.N. chief also pointed to "appalling levels of violence and human suffering" from Myanmar and Congo to Haiti, Yemen and beyond, and the expanding terrorist threat in Africa's Sahel region. He said the Summit of the Future that preceded Tuesday's start of the assembly's nearly weeklong "General Debate," was a first step. "But we have a long way to go."

At the two-day summit, the world's nations adopted a "Pact for the Future." It's a blueprint for starting to address challenges from tackling climate change and poverty to putting guardrails on artificial intelligence.