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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)
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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.

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Iraq, UK Agree on Trade Package Worth up to $15 Billion, Defense Deal

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (L) shake hands during their meeting in Downing Street in London, Britain, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (L) shake hands during their meeting in Downing Street in London, Britain, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
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Iraq, UK Agree on Trade Package Worth up to $15 Billion, Defense Deal

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (L) shake hands during their meeting in Downing Street in London, Britain, 14 January 2025. (EPA)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (L) shake hands during their meeting in Downing Street in London, Britain, 14 January 2025. (EPA)

Iraq and Britain have agreed on a trade package worth up to 12.3 billion pounds ($14.98 billion) and a bilateral defense deal, the Iraqi and British prime ministers said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The deal, envisaging more than 10 times the total of bilateral trade in 2024, was announced after a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and British counterpart Keir Starmer at the latter's Downing Street offices.

It includes a 1.2-billion-pound project in which British-made power transmission systems will be used for a grid interconnection project between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as a 500-million-pound plan to upgrade the Al-Qayyarah air base in northern Iraq.

A water infrastructure project by a UK-led consortium that will help provide clean water in arid southern and western Iraq is also part of the deal, the statement said. The project would be worth up to 5.3 billion pounds in UK exports.

Sudani and Starmer also signed a defense deal that "establishes the basis for a new era in security cooperation".

Sudani said earlier that the UK-Iraqi security deal would develop bilateral military ties after last year's announcement that the US-led coalition set up to fight ISIS would end its work in Iraq in 2026.

The Iraqi premier began an official visit to the United Kingdom on Monday amid historic geopolitical shifts in the Middle East.

Iraq is trying to avoid becoming a conflict zone once again amid a period of regional upheaval that has seen Iran's allies Hamas degraded in Gaza and Hezbollah battered in Lebanon during wars with Israel, and Bashar al-Assad toppled in Syria.