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STORY: UN / ADVANCING PEACE MIDDLE EAST
TRT: 06:53
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / SPANISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 10 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Aerial shot, exterior, United Nations flag outside UN Headquarters
09 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Secretary-General António Guterres addressing Council
4. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Escalation in the Middle East reverberates across borders and continents, through political tensions, displacement, and rising insecurity, through markets and trade routes, through food and fuel costs. A brutal price is being paid by the region's people, and it is extending to the wider world, particularly the most vulnerable countries and communities.”
5. Med shot, Guterres addressing Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We have witnessed a serious escalation as Israel intensified its operations in Lebanese territory and Hezbollah fired deeper into Israel. We have seen the killing of civilians, entire communities uprooted and extensive demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon. The forced displacement of over a million civilians. The killing of seven UN peacekeepers, including one last week. And through it all, the risk and reality of war escalation.”
7. Wide shot, Guterres addressing Council
8. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Gaza still faces profound uncertainty and immense human suffering. Violence is on the rise, with civilians killed on a daily basis. Humanitarian operations remain heavily constrained. Basic human needs for clean water, sanitation, food, shelter, healthcare, and more are going unmet. And the Israeli government is declaring its intent to control 70 percent of the Strip.”
9. Wide shot, Guterres addressing Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Reports of settler violence now averaging six attacks per day; the demolition of homes; destruction of farms and confiscation of lands; the relentless expansion of illegal Israeli settlements; the ongoing displacement of Palestinians at levels not seen since 1967; the threat of an attempt of annexation that would, like the decades long occupation, have no legal validity; the risk of making a two-state solution impossible when there is no other viable option. And throughout, the presumption of impunity.”
11. Wide shot, Guterres addressing Council
12. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Civilians and civilian infrastructure have come under attack in multiple countries. All threats to national sovereignty and territorial integrity are violations to international law. At the same time, restrictions on navigational rights and freedoms in and around the Strait of Hormuz are causing hardship and instability across the world, driving up energy prices and disrupting supply chains, making fertilisers more costly and hunger more prevalent, pushing up inflation and piling on debt, and in fragile states, raising the risk of fresh conflicts. Even in the best-case scenario, these shocks will be felt for many months, with developing countries bearing the heaviest impact. I call on all parties to honour the ceasefire and redouble efforts to reach a lasting agreement.”
13. Wide shot, Council
14. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gustavo Petro, President, Colombia:
“The two events that can end humanity - depending on our decisions – are artificial intelligence in the hands of a private elite, an economically powerful elite, and the phenomenon of the widespread consumption of hydrocarbons as a result of greed. And that has brought us to the humanitarian crises that wars have caused.”
15. Wide shot, Council
16. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gustavo Petro, President, Colombia:
“We're witnessing global violence that involves missiles raining down against babies, houses burned, wars across the globe.”
17. Med shot, US representative Jennifer Locetta at the Council dais
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Jennifer Locetta, Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs, United States:
“Effective diplomacy requires leverage, credibility, and enforcement. We must recognise a simple truth, throughout the region, many conflicts are fuelled by the malign behaviour of a single actor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, with political and financial support from certain members of this Council. Iran is holding the world's economy hostage by unlawfully attempting to restrict freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. It continues to back the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and militias in Iraq. Iran's nuclear program has threatened peace and security for years. The United States once again condemns in the strongest terms possible that Iran's outrageous and unacceptable attacks against its neighbouring countries must stop.”
19. Wide shot, Saudi Ambassador Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed Al-Wasil addressing Council
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed Al-Wasil, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Saudi Arabia:
“Our Arab region has recently witnessed a dangerous escalation and hostile acts that have threatened international regional security and stability, including Iranian attacks and assaults that have targeted a number of the Gulf Arab states and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which is a violation of the principles of good neighbourliness, international law and the charter of the United Nations. The Arab group reaffirms its rejection of any acts whose effect would be to undermine the security of states, threaten their stability, or expose their peoples and capabilities to danger.”
21. Wide shot, end of Council session
22. Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the Council stakeout podium
23. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gustavo Petro, President, Colombia:
“Crimes cannot be collectivized and blame an entire people. That's what I said. Because that is precisely the Nazi thesis with which they carried out the Holocaust against various peoples, religions and political beliefs in Europe and Asia.”
24. Wide shot, Petro at the podium
25. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Gustavo Petro, President, Colombia:
“I defend Gaza. I believe that a genocide occurred there and that the genocide must be tried by international justice, not just national justice. The Israelis would set a good example if they did it themselves. But what is isolating Israel from the world is having genocidal elements in its government.”
26. Pan right, Petro walks away
During a Security Council meeting chaired by Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, Secretary-General António Guterres today (10 Jun) warned that the Middle East is being pulled deeper into crisis, as this week has brought wider attacks and further deterioration, and said, “a brutal price is being paid by the region's people, and it is extending to the wider world, particularly the most vulnerable countries and communities.”
Escalation in the Middle East, Guterres said, “reverberates across borders and continents, through political tensions, displacement and rising insecurity, through markets and trade routes, through food and fuel costs.”
In Lebanon, he said, “we have witnessed a serious escalation as Israel intensified its operations in Lebanese territory and Hezbollah fired deeper into Israel.
Guterres said, “we have seen the killing of civilians, entire communities uprooted and extensive demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in southern Lebanon, the forced displacement of over a million civilians, the killing of seven UN peacekeepers, including one last week. And through it all, the risk and reality of war escalation.”
Gaza, he continued, “still faces profound uncertainty and immense human suffering,” as “violence is on the rise, with civilians killed on a daily basis.”
The Secretary-General said, humanitarian operations “remain heavily constrained, “as “basic human needs for clean water, sanitation, food, shelter, healthcare, and more are going unmet. And the Israeli government is declaring its intent to control 70 percent of the Strip. “
In the West Bank, he said, “reports of settler violence now averaging six attacks per day; the demolition of homes; destruction of farms and confiscation of lands; the relentless expansion of illegal Israeli settlements; the ongoing displacement of Palestinians at levels not seen since 1967; the threat of an attempt of annexation that would, like the decades long occupation, have no legal validity; the risk of making a two-state solution impossible when there is no other viable option. And throughout, the presumption of impunity.”
Guterres said, “civilians and civilian infrastructure have come under attack in multiple countries,” and stressed that “all threats to national sovereignty and territorial integrity are violations to international law.”
At the same time, he said, “restrictions on navigational rights and freedoms in and around the Strait of Hormuz are causing hardship and instability across the world, driving up energy prices and disrupting supply chains, making fertilisers more costly and hunger more prevalent, pushing up inflation and piling on debt, and in fragile states, raising the risk of fresh conflicts.”
Even in the best-case scenario, the Secretary-General said, “these shocks will be felt for many months, with developing countries bearing the heaviest impact,” and called on all parties “to honour the ceasefire and redouble efforts to reach a lasting agreement.”
The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, for his part said, “the two events that can end humanity - depending on our decisions – are artificial intelligence in the hands of a private elite, an economically powerful elite and the phenomenon of the widespread consumption of hydrocarbons as a result of greed. And that has brought us to the humanitarian crises that wars have caused.”
He said, “we're witnessing global violence that involves missiles raining down against babies, houses burned, wars across the globe.”
United States representative Jennifer Locetta told the Council that “effective diplomacy requires leverage, credibility, and enforcement.”
Locetta said, “we must recognise a simple truth, throughout the region, many conflicts are fuelled by the malign behaviour of a single actor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, with political and financial support from certain members of this Council. Iran is holding the world's economy hostage by unlawfully attempting to restrict freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. It continues to back the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and militias in Iraq. Iran's nuclear program has threatened peace and security for years.”
She said, “the United States once again condemns in the strongest terms possible that Iran's outrageous and unacceptable attacks against its neighbouring countries must stop.”
Saudi Ambassador Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed Al-Wasil, speaking on behalf of the Arab Group said, “our Arab region has recently witnessed a dangerous escalation and hostile acts that have threatened international regional security and stability, including Iranian attacks and assaults that have targeted a number of the Gulf Arab states and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which is a violation of the principles of good neighbourliness, international law and the charter of the United Nations.”
Al-Wasil said, “the Arab group reaffirms its rejection of any acts whose effect would be to undermine the security of states, threaten their stability, or expose their peoples and capabilities to danger.”
Talking to reporters outside the Council, Petro said, “crimes cannot be collectivized and blame an entire people. That's what I said. Because that is precisely the Nazi thesis with which they carried out the Holocaust against various peoples, religions and political beliefs in Europe and Asia.”
He said, “I defend Gaza. I believe that a genocide occurred there and that the genocide must be tried by international justice, not just national justice. The Israelis would set a good example if they did it themselves. But what is isolating Israel from the world is having genocidal elements in its government.”
