UN Chief Warns Gaza War May Aggravate Threats to Global Peace, Security

People watch as others search for victims amid the rubble of a smouldering building, following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 6, 2023. (AFP)
People watch as others search for victims amid the rubble of a smouldering building, following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 6, 2023. (AFP)
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UN Chief Warns Gaza War May Aggravate Threats to Global Peace, Security

People watch as others search for victims amid the rubble of a smouldering building, following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 6, 2023. (AFP)
People watch as others search for victims amid the rubble of a smouldering building, following an Israeli strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 6, 2023. (AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council on Wednesday that the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip "may aggravate existing threats to international peace and security."

Guterres invoked the rarely used Article 99 of the founding UN Charter that allows him to "bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security."

"We are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system. The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region," Guterres wrote in a letter to the 15-member council.

"Such an outcome must be avoided at all cost," he said.



First Class of Syrian Police Cadets Since Assad’s Ouster Graduates

Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government, in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government, in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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First Class of Syrian Police Cadets Since Assad’s Ouster Graduates

Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government, in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Syrian police members attend their graduation ceremony, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, at the Police Academy under the Syrian Salvation Government, in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2025. (Reuters)

The first class of Syrian police cadets has graduated since the ouster of President Bashar Assad.

The newly reopened police college in Damascus began accepting applications shortly after opposition groups toppled Assad last month, ending decades of his family rule that was known for widespread surveillance, arbitrary detentions, torture and deaths of real and perceived opponents.

The country’s new leadership under the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group has been working on restructuring Syria’s military and security forces, Oussama Mohammad, a military official at the police college, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

“The purpose of this course is to preserve security and safety in Syria’s provinces and to track down remnants of the (Assad) regime,” he said.

Over 400 young men applied to join the police, Mohammad said.