New York (April 14, 2018): The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that the cold war is “back with a vengeance”.
Antonio Guterres also warned about the dangers of escalation over Syria. The US and its allies are considering launching missile strikes against Syria after a suspected chemical attack, an action which Russia – whose forces are there supporting the government- has said would risk starting a war.
Russia has accused the UK of faking an attack, an allegation Britain dismissed as a “grotesque, blatant lie”. Guterres delivered his warnings at the opening of a bad-tempered UN Security Council meeting.
“The Cold War is back with a vengeance, but with a difference,” he said. “The mechanisms and the safeguards to manage the risks of escalation that existed in the past no longer seem to be present.” He urged countries to “act responsibly in these dangerous circumstances”.
Whereas the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the US of using the suspected chemical attack as a pretext to overthrow the Assad government and “contain” Russia.
The US ambassador accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons at least 50 times in seven years.
France’s ambassador said Syria had gone “beyond the point of no return” and France would “shoulder its responsibility to end an intolerable threat to our collective security”
The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, told the network: “We definitely have enough proof but now we just have to be thoughtful in our action.”
A delegation from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will arrive in the area of the suspected attack on Saturday.
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