UN Chief Calls for ‘Unconditional and Immediate’ Ethiopian Ceasefire

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the media at the end of his visit to mark five years since the signing of a peace deal between the FARC rebels and the Colombian government in Bogota, Colombia November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the media at the end of his visit to mark five years since the signing of a peace deal between the FARC rebels and the Colombian government in Bogota, Colombia November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
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UN Chief Calls for ‘Unconditional and Immediate’ Ethiopian Ceasefire

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the media at the end of his visit to mark five years since the signing of a peace deal between the FARC rebels and the Colombian government in Bogota, Colombia November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addresses the media at the end of his visit to mark five years since the signing of a peace deal between the FARC rebels and the Colombian government in Bogota, Colombia November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an end to fighting in Ethiopia while in Colombia's capital Bogota, urging Ethiopian leaders to follow the Andean country's example of peace.

Guterres, who was visiting Colombia to mark the five-year anniversary of the peace deal between the government and the demobilized leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, called for an immediate end to hostilities, Reuters reported.

"The peace process in Colombia today inspires me to make an urgent call to the protagonists of the conflict in Ethiopia for an unconditional and immediate ceasefire," Guterres said during a joint address with Colombia's President Ivan Duque.

War in Ethiopia broke out in November 2020 in the country's Tigray region between Ethiopian federal troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. In July, the conflict spread into two neighboring regions in northern Ethiopia.

Ending fighting in Ethiopia would allow a dialogue to take place between Ethiopians, Guterres said, permitting the country to once again contribute to the stability of the region.

"I would very much like Colombia to be the example followed by the leaders in Ethiopia," Guterres added.

Guterres also urged Colombian lawmakers to ratify the ratify Escazu Accord, an agreement among Latin American and Caribbean countries that enshrines protections for those working on environmental causes.

According to advocacy group Global Witness, Colombia is the most dangerous country for environmental defenders in the world, with a record 65 killed in 2020.

Colombia's government has blamed crime gangs and leftist rebels involved in drug trafficking for the rise in activist killings.



French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
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French Intelligence Chief: No Certainty on Whereabouts of Iran’s Uranium Stocks

An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)
An Iranian national flag is fixed to the arm of a statue at the monument dedicated to the Palestinian struggle in Palestine Square in central Tehran on July 8, 2025, as an anti-Israeli billboard is displayed on the facade of a building depicting the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with text in Persian and Hebrew reading "Netanyahu lost another war; you fell victim to Bibi's political games; Where will the next failure to stay in power occur?" (AFP)

France's intelligence chief said on Tuesday that all aspects of Iran's nuclear program have been pushed back several months after American and Israeli air strikes, but there is uncertainty over where its highly-enriched uranium stocks are.

"The Iranian nuclear program is the material, it is highly-enriched uranium, it is a capacity to convert this uranium from the gaseous phase to the solid phase. It is the manufacturing of the core and it is the delivery," Nicolas Lerner, who heads the DGSE intelligence service, told LCI television.

"Our assessment today is that each of these stages has been very seriously affected, very seriously damaged and that the nuclear program, as we knew it, has been extremely delayed, probably many months."

Lerner, who was speaking for the first time on national television, said a small part of Iran's highly-enriched uranium stockpile had been destroyed, but the rest remained in the hands of the authorities.

"Today we have indications (on where it is), but we cannot say with certainty as long as the IAEA does not restart its work. It's very important. We won't have the capacity to trace it (the stocks)," Lerner said.

Other intelligence assessments have also suggested that Iran retains a hidden stockpile of enriched uranium and the technical capacity to rebuild.

Lerner echoed those comments saying there was a possibility Iran could press ahead with a clandestine program with smaller enrichment capacities.

"That's why France is so attached to finding a diplomatic solution to this nuclear crisis," he said.