Nairobi: UN Chief Antonio Guterres on Monday appealed for the Strait of Hormuz to be completely open and the ceasefire to be maintained.
“My strong appeal is for the negotiations to go on until that diplomatic solution is found, the ceasefire to be maintained, and in between, the Strait of Hormuz to be completely open…Any restart of the fighting would have terrible consequences,” Guterres said while attending a groundbreaking ceremony for a conference facility at the UN office in Kenya’s Nairobi.
He insisted that the Middle East emergency is not a “distance crisis” as around 13 per cent of Africa’s imports move through the key waterway.
He also added that many African nations are still waiting for fertilisers and other agricultural inputs from the Gulf.
“Without fertilisers, you can imagine that we risk having a serious food security problem next year,” he explained.
He noted that the price of Urea has risen by more than 35 per cent in a month, the world’s most widely used fertiliser.
He said that keeping the Strait of Hormuz completely open is a must for the interests of the international community, noted the UN news.
“That is the only way to bring energy prices and fertiliser prices back to the levels that we had before the war,” Guterres highlighted.
Earlier on Monday, US President Donald Trump sharply rejected Iran’s response to a new US proposal aimed at ending the conflict in the Gulf region, calling Tehran’s position “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE” as tensions continued around the Strait of Hormuz.
“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The remarks came hours after Iran sent its response to a US-backed peace framework intended to stabilise the region after weeks of military confrontation and maritime disruptions.
(IANS)
