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Israel’s Foreign Minister Says UN Chief Not Fit to Lead

Eli Cohen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, addresses the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, during a press conference about the hostages held in Gaza since the Israel Hamas war. (AP)
Eli Cohen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, addresses the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, during a press conference about the hostages held in Gaza since the Israel Hamas war. (AP)
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Israel’s Foreign Minister Says UN Chief Not Fit to Lead

Eli Cohen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, addresses the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, during a press conference about the hostages held in Gaza since the Israel Hamas war. (AP)
Eli Cohen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, addresses the media at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, during a press conference about the hostages held in Gaza since the Israel Hamas war. (AP)

Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was not fit to head the global body, saying he had not done enough to condemn militant group Hamas and was too close to Iran.

His comments, made at a press conference inside the UN building in Geneva, represent an intensification of Israel's criticism of the UN in the same week that the latter mourned the killing of more than 100 of its staff in Gaza.

"Guterres does not deserve to be the head of the United Nations," Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said.

Cohen was meeting in Geneva with the World Health Organization and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) alongside families of Israeli hostages.

"I think that Guterres like all the free nations should say clearly and loudly: free Gaza from Hamas. Everyone said Hamas is worse than ISIS. Why can he not say it?" he said.

A spokesperson for the United Nations in New York did not immediately provide a comment.

Guterres has previously said there was something "wrong" with Israel's military operation which has killed more than 11,000 so far in retaliation for attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7 which killed 1,200 people. A further 240 people were seized from Israel, including infants, the injured and the elderly.

Cohen, who met with ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric earlier on Tuesday, said he expected the neutral body to do more to gain access to the hostages.

"I think that the minimum is the Red Cross will meet the hostages; the minimum is they receive a proof of life; and the minimum (is) that they will transfer the medicine to the hostages who are needing it," he said.

Spoljaric said the UN was trying to gain access, but said it first needed agreements in place.

"Please know that the ICRC cannot force its way in to where hostages are held," she said.

Health Minister Uriel Menachem Buso said that he would present evidence to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later on Tuesday that Hamas is using hospitals for military purposes. Hamas denies its fighters are present.

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United Nations Warily awaits Donald Trump's Return to Power

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, October 30, 2024. REUTERS/Jay Paul/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, October 30, 2024. REUTERS/Jay Paul/File Photo
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United Nations Warily awaits Donald Trump's Return to Power

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, October 30, 2024. REUTERS/Jay Paul/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, October 30, 2024. REUTERS/Jay Paul/File Photo

The United Nations has been planning for the possible return of Donald Trump and the cuts to US funding and engagement with world body that are likely to come with his second term as president.
There was a sense of "déjà vu and some trepidation" at the 193-member world body, said one senior Asian diplomat, as Republican Trump won Tuesday's US election over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
"There is also some hope that a transactional administration will engage the UN on some areas even if it were to defund some dossiers. After all, what bigger and better global stage is there than the United Nations?" said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A US retreat at the UN could open the door for China, which has been building its influence in global diplomacy.
Trump has offered few specifics about foreign policy in his second term but supporters say the force of his personality and his "peace through strength" approach will help bend foreign leaders to his will. He has vowed to solve the war in Ukraine and is expected to give strong support to Israel in its conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
Among the top concerns at the UN are whether the United States will decide to contribute less money to the world body and withdraw from key multinational institutions and agreements, including the world Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement.
US funding is the immediate worry. Washington is the UN's largest contributor - with China second - accounting for 22% of the core UN budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget.
A country can be up to two years in arrears before facing the possible repercussion of losing its General Assembly vote.
'EXTREMELY HARD'
Trump came to power last time proposing to cut about a third off US diplomacy and aid budgets, which included steep reductions in funding for UN peacekeeping and international organizations. But Congress, which sets the federal US government budget, pushed back on Trump's proposal.
A UN spokesperson said at the time the proposed cuts would have made it impossible to continue all essential work.
"The UN secretariat has known that they could face a Trump comeback all year. There has been prudent planning behind the scenes on how to manage potential US budget cuts," said Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group.
"So (UN Secretary-General Antonio) Guterres and his team are not totally unprepared, but they know the next year will be extremely hard," he said.
Trump's team did not immediately respond to a query about his policy toward the UN after he takes office in January.
During his first term, Trump complained that the US was shouldering an unfair burden of the cost of the UN and pushed for reforms. Washington is traditionally slow to pay and when Trump left office in 2021 the US was in arrears about $600 million for the core budget and $2 billion for peacekeeping.
According to UN figures, President Joe Biden's administration currently owes $995 million for the core UN budget and $862 million for the peacekeeping budget.
"I don't want to pre-empt or speak about policies that may or may not happen, but we work with member states in the way we've always worked with member states," Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday.
In 2026, the UN Security Council will choose Guterres' successor, a decision in which the Trump administration will hold a veto power.
'GREAT NEWS FOR CHINA'
During Trump's first term, he was critical of the United Nations and wary of multilateralism. He announced plans to quit the World Health Organization, and pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council, the UN cultural agency UNESCO, a global climate change accord and the Iran nuclear deal.
When Biden succeeded him in 2021, he rescinded the US decision to withdraw from the WHO and returned the US to UNESCO and the climate agreement. Trump's campaign has said he would quit the climate deal again if he won office.
"It will survive. But, of course, it will probably survive severely undermined," Guterres told Reuters in September of a second withdrawal from the climate pact by Trump.
Ahead of the US election, a senior European diplomat said a Trump win would be "great news for China," recalling that during Trump's first term "the Chinese influence in the UN increased a lot because it was an open bar for the Chinese."
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that if Trump again cuts UN funding and withdraws from international pacts "it will just give China the opportunity to present itself as the supporter number one of multilateralism."
US funding for some other UN agencies is also in question. One of the first moves by the Trump administration in 2017 was to cut funding for UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the international body's agency focused on family planning as well as maternal and child health in more than 150 countries.
Trump's administration said UNFPA "supports ... a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization." The UN said that was an inaccurate perception. Biden restored US funding for UNFPA.
If Trump again cuts funding, UNFPA warned that "women will lose lifesaving services in some of the world's most devastating crises" in places like Afghanistan, Sudan and Ukraine.
Under Trump's first presidency, the US also opposed long-agreed international language on women's sexual and reproductive rights and health in UN resolutions over concern that it would advance abortion rights.
A senior African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up the impending return of Trump for multilateralism and the United Nations: "The heavens help us."