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UN Chief Guterres Raises Concerns About Instability in Venezuela, Legality of US Operation

Opponents of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demonstrate in Doral, Florida, on January 4, 2026. (AFP)
Opponents of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demonstrate in Doral, Florida, on January 4, 2026. (AFP)
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UN Chief Guterres Raises Concerns About Instability in Venezuela, Legality of US Operation

Opponents of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demonstrate in Doral, Florida, on January 4, 2026. (AFP)
Opponents of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demonstrate in Doral, Florida, on January 4, 2026. (AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised concerns on Monday about a possible intensification of instability in Venezuela after the US capture of the Latin American country's president Nicolas Maduro.

The 15-member Security Council met at UN headquarters in New York just hours before Maduro was due to appear in a Manhattan federal court on drug charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro has denied any criminal involvement.

"I am deeply concerned about the possible intensification of instability in the country, the potential impact on the region, and the precedent it may set for ‌how relations between ‌and among states are conducted," Guterres said in ‌a ⁠statement delivered to the ‌council by UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo.

Guterres called on all Venezuelan actors to engage in an inclusive and democratic dialogue, adding: "I welcome and am ready to support all efforts aimed at assisting Venezuelans in finding a peaceful way forward."

He also expressed concern that the US operation to capture Maduro in Caracas on Saturday did not respect the rules of international law.

'ACT OF AGGRESSION'

Colombia, which requested Monday's meeting, ⁠condemned the U.S. operation as a clear violation of the sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of ‌Venezuela.

"There is no justification whatsoever, under any circumstances, for ‍the unilateral use of force to ‍commit an act of aggression," Colombian UN Ambassador Leonor Zalabata Torres told the ‍council. "Such actions constitute a serious violation of international law and the United Nations Charter."

Legal experts have said the US operation was illegal because it lacked UN Security Council authorization, did not have Venezuelan consent and did not constitute self-defense against an armed attack.

But the United States cannot be held accountable for any violation by the UN Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and ⁠security. The United States wields a veto - along with Russia, China, Britain and France - so it can block any action.

The founding UN Charter states that members "shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state." There are currently 193 members of the United Nations.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz on Sunday cited Article 51 of the UN Charter, which says that nothing "shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations."

Trump has threatened another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with opening its oil industry ‌and stopping the flow of drugs. Trump also threatened Colombia and Mexico, and said Cuba's communist government "looks like it's ready to fall."

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World

Sirens Heard at Incirlik Air Base, Key NATO Facility in South Türkiye

İncirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Türkiye (AFP)
İncirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Türkiye (AFP)
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Sirens Heard at Incirlik Air Base, Key NATO Facility in South Türkiye

İncirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Türkiye (AFP)
İncirlik Air Base in Adana, southern Türkiye (AFP)

Sirens were heard early on Friday at Türkiye’s Incirlik airbase, a key NATO facility where US troops are stationed near the southeastern city of Adana, state news agency Anadolu reported.

There was no immediate official comment on the incident, which took place four days after NATO air defenses shot down a ballistic missile in Turkish airspace that was fired from Iran, the second in five days.

Residents of Adana, which lies 10 kilometers (six miles) away from the base, were woken at around 3:25 am (0025 GMT) by sirens, which sounded for around five minutes, according to the Ekonomim business news website.

It said a red alert sounded at the base.

Several people posted mobile phone footage on social media of a glowing image flying through the sky, suggesting it could be a missile heading for the airbase, it said.

Across the city, sirens from fire engines and the security forces could be heard for a long time, it added.

NATO said it shot down a second ballistic missile fired from Iran on Monday, prompting a stern warning from Türkiye to Tehran not to take "provocative steps".

The announcement came shortly after Washington said it was closing down its consulate in Adana, urging all American citizens to leave southeastern Türkiye.

Since the US-Israeli war against Iran started, Tehran has launched strikes across the Middle East. Türkiye had appeared to have been spared.

As well as Incirlik airbase, US troops are also stationed at Kurecik, another Turkish base that is a NATO facility in the center of the country, where a Patriot missile defense system was deployed on Tuesday.

A first missile had been intercepted by NATO defenses in Turkish air space on March 4.

World

Iran War Disrupts Energy Supplies as Iran's New Leader Resolves to Keep Fighting

FILE - A thick plume of smoke rises Sunday, March 8, 2026, from an oil storage facility struck overnight in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
FILE - A thick plume of smoke rises Sunday, March 8, 2026, from an oil storage facility struck overnight in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
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Iran War Disrupts Energy Supplies as Iran's New Leader Resolves to Keep Fighting

FILE - A thick plume of smoke rises Sunday, March 8, 2026, from an oil storage facility struck overnight in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
FILE - A thick plume of smoke rises Sunday, March 8, 2026, from an oil storage facility struck overnight in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Iran’s secretive new leader issued his first public statements Thursday, resolving to keep fighting and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.

Early Friday, US President Donald Trump issued a new threat online to Iran, writing: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.” Trump tallied the damage inflicted on Iran and its leaders and called it a “great honor” to be responsible for it.

The remarks by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country's attacks were creating conditions for the Iranian population to topple the government, The Associated Press reported.

“It is in your hands,” Netanyahu said at a news conference, addressing the Iranian people. “We are creating the optimal conditions for the fall of the regime.”

Since the start of the war, US and Israeli strikes have targeted security checkpoints in Iran to undermine the government’s ability to suppress dissent, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, the US-based independent monitoring group known as ACLED.

Intense airstrikes hit early Friday around Iran’s capital, Tehran, as well as outlying areas. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted.

Netanyahu denounces Iranian leader

Netanyahu denounced Khamenei as a “puppet of the Revolutionary Guards."

Khamenei is close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and is widely seen as even less compromising than his father, Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei said in a statement read by a state TV news anchor that he was keeping a “file of revenge.” He did not appear on camera and has not been seen since his father and wife were killed in the war’s opening salvo, which also wounded him, according to an Iranian ambassador.

Oil prices spiral again and stocks sink

The war continued to escalate on its 13th day as oil prices spiraled up again to $100 per barrel, and stocks sank worldwide over fears that the conflict could drag on longer than hoped.

To relieve the surge in prices, the US Treasury Department announced it was further easing sanctions on Russian oil by granting a license that authorizes the delivery and sale of some Russian crude oil and petroleum products for the next month.

Trump signaled earlier this week that he would take more action to address the squeeze on oil flows. The move follows the administration’s decision to grant temporary permission for India to buy Russian oil.

The new exemption applies only to Russian oil already at sea. Last week, analysts estimated there were about 125 million barrels loaded on tankers. To put that in perspective, about 20 million barrels of oil per day usually pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Energy Agency.

Iran has made clear it plans to keep up attacks on energy infrastructure across the region and use the effective closure of the strait as leverage against the United States and Israel. A fifth of the world’s traded oil flows through the waterway leading from the Arabian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean.

At a news conference Thursday, Iran’s ambassador to Tunisia, Mir Masoud Hosseinian, said Iranian naval forces “have established full control” over the strait and “carried out precise strikes in response to attacks on our oil infrastructure.”

“Global energy security is contingent on respect for Iran’s sovereignty,” he said.

The pinch was being felt worldwide. South Korea reinstated government-set caps on oil prices for the first time in three decades as it sought to calm soaring fuel costs. The two-week caps, which took effect Friday, set maximum prices for petroleum products supplied by refiners to gas stations and other businesses.

Iranian leader calls for the shutdown of US bases

Hosseinian told The Associated Press the new supreme leader was wounded in the attack on his family’s home, but “it is not serious.” The hope is he will attend the massive, state-organized Eid prayer next week that his father traditionally led. However, Khamenei remains a target for the Israelis, who have vowed to kill him.

Hosseinian said Iran’s strikes on Gulf nations have been strategic. “Even when we targeted hotels, we had precise information that they were hosting American and Israeli soldiers,” he said.

Khamenei called on Gulf Arabs to “shut down” US bases in the region, saying protection promised by Washington was “nothing more than a lie.”

He also said Iran has studied “opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable” if the war continues. He did not elaborate, but Iran has been linked to previous attacks on US, Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.

World

Mojtaba Khamenei Says Closure of Strait of Hormuz Should be Used as 'Leverage'

(FILES) In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP)
(FILES) In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP)
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Mojtaba Khamenei Says Closure of Strait of Hormuz Should be Used as 'Leverage'

(FILES) In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP)
(FILES) In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Photo by Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement on the war on Thursday, saying that the leverage of closing the Strait of Hormuz should be used.

Khamenei called on people in Gulf countries to “shut down” US bases, saying promised US protection is “nothing more than a lie.”

Khamenei did not appear on camera. Israeli intelligence assessed that he was likely wounded in the war’s opening salvo, which he said also killed his wife, one of his sisters, his niece and his father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

US President Donald Trump has promised to “finish the job,” even as Iran is “virtually destroyed.” The first week of the war cost the United States $11.3 billion, according to the Pentagon.

“One point I must emphasize is that, in any case, we will obtain compensation from the enemy,” Khamenei said.

“If it refuses, we will take from its assets to the extent we deem appropriate, and if that is not possible, we will destroy its assets to the same extent.”