The United Nations marked the 80th anniversary of its establishment following the end of the Second World War, a conflict that wrought unprecedented devastation and claimed millions of lives. It was this cataclysm that impelled the founding states to pledge to spare future generations from the scourge of war and to build a world rooted in security, peace, and cooperation in the face of grave challenges.
Yet, over the decades, wars and crises have persisted in various regions, raising questions about the credibility of the United Nations and its capacity to fulfil its mandate—particularly with respect to the Security Council, entrusted with maintaining international peace and security and empowered under Chapter VII to adopt binding resolutions.
Criticism directed at the United Nations concerning the limits of its role in realising the objectives enshrined in its Charter in some measure diminishes its achievements. Nevertheless, in a shifting international landscape moving towards multipolarity, the United Nations remains both a symbol of international legitimacy and of international and humanitarian law, as well as an ideal forum for multilateral cooperation across economic, social, human rights, environmental, cultural, and humanitarian domains—despite the rise of powerful blocs and competing global actors. In a world beset by turbulence, conflict, and hegemonic ambitions, the United Nations' existence remains preferable to its absence.
During the general discussions of the high-level meetings of the 80th session—attended by heads of state and government—renewed calls resounded for reform of the United Nations. Chief among these were demands for an expansion of the Security Council and for addressing the veto power, which has long obstructed the Council's ability to take necessary action in defense of peace and stability.
The Council's inability to halt the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023 epitomises this structural imbalance in the international system. Despite the intolerable deterioration of humanitarian conditions to catastrophic levels, the devastation of livelihoods, the targeting of hospitals, schools, and media institutions, the relentless bombardment, killing, and intimidation, and the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinians into the unknown in a profound and humiliating Nakba, the Security Council has remained incapacitated and inert.
The Palestinian question—forcefully present on the agenda of this session and repeatedly affirmed in its political and moral weight—poses a profound test for the United Nations. It requires the implementation of resolutions of international legitimacy and support for initiatives aimed at ending the war on Gaza and curbing settlement expansion in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. This must be pursued through genuine international engagement to advance a sustainable settlement of this just cause, in line with the vision of the two-state solution that commands overwhelming global support, thereby enabling the Palestinian people to live in dignity within a cohesive state endowed with freedom, sovereignty, and independence.
Ambassador Ahmed Rashid Khattabi,
Assistant Secretary-General – Head of the Media and Communications Sector
