UN CHIEF CALLS FOR UKRAINE TRUCE DURING MOSCOW VISIT
▶ Guterres says global body is ready to move civilians out of besieged port city of Mariupol
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres emphasised the need for a ceasefire in Ukraine during a meeting in Moscow yesterday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
He told Mr Lavrov the UN was “extremely interested in finding ways to create the conditions for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, and create the conditions for a peaceful solution”.
Mr Lavrov said Moscow was ready to co-operate with the UN to help civilians in Ukraine.
But he repeated his government’s claims that Ukraine was trying to ban the Russian language and culture, and had been promoting Nazi ideology.
Mr Guterres, who described the discussions as “very frank”, said he was concerned by reports that humans rights breaches and war crimes had been committed, and said the battle for the Donbas region had brought “tremendous death and destruction” to eastern Ukraine.
Mr Guterres also said the UN was ready to move civilians out of the besieged south-eastern port city of Mariupol.
“The sooner peace is established the better, for the sake of Ukraine, Russia and for the world,” he said.
He recognised that Russia had “many grievances” with the UN, but said there were legal channels to address such concerns rather than war.
“There is one thing that is true and obvious and that no argument can change: we have no Ukrainian troops in the territory of the Russian Federation but we have Russian troops in the territory of the Ukrainian Federation,” he said.
Mr Guterres was due later to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The UN chief will travel to Kyiv after his talks in Moscow conclude.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “simply wrong” for the UN secretary general to hold talks with the Russian leadership before meeting Ukrainian officials.
The war in Ukraine has provided an opening to “reshape and rebalance” US alliances in the Middle East, leading analysts have said.
The Russian invasion is having a significant effect on international relationships, with the Gulf region likely to be able to secure increased security guarantees from Washington.
It could also lead to a temporary nuclear agreement being struck with Iran and may have an effect on Moscow’s relations with Turkey and the war in Syria, an online seminar organised by the Chatham House think tank was told.
America’s low-key reaction over continued aggression from Iran, including attacks by the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on Abu Dhabi in January, in which three people were killed, and on Saudi Arabia, had created grievances and “continued uncertainties”, Middle East specialist Dr Sanam Vakil said.
She said a Nato-type treaty with the West was unlikely and the more probable scenario was “a strategic framework between the US through Centcom and Gulf players to co-ordinate on intelligence sharing in a more multilateral way”.
She said that for the Middle East the war provided an opening “to renegotiate their relationship with Washington”. She said it was “an opportunity for them to rebalance”.
The agreement could also build air and naval defences “to protect and shield the Gulf from the profound security threats from Iran”, said Dr Vakil, Chatham House’s deputy director for Middle East and North Africa.
Over time the arrangement could be broadened to bring in Jordan, Egypt and possibly Israel. The idea is “a big sell and requires a lot of investment” but could emerge from the Ukraine war, she said.
Associate fellow and economist Dr John Sfakianakis said the interruption of key grain supplies from Ukraine and Russia might lead to crises in countries such as Egypt, Algeria and Jordan “and of course Lebanon, which has been forgotten but has to be addressed at some point”.
There have been grievances in the Gulf over the “uncertainty” of US engagement in the region over the past decade that were “primarily driven by uncertainty over the revived Iran nuclear talks”, Dr Vakil told the seminar.
Part of a new US arrangement would be a renewal of the nuclear deal in which there was “a determined amount of time where Iran agrees to freeze its nuclear programme in exchange for perhaps a tolerance of this status quo”, she said.
The proposal is reflected in an open letter from the European Leadership Network urging America and Iran to show greater flexibility in negotiations over the deal.
With talks stalled during the war there were “fears that previous progress will be undone”, write the signatories, who include two former heads of state, nine former foreign ministers and five former defence secretaries.
“At a time when transatlantic co-operation has become all the more critical to respond against Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, for US and European leaders to let slip the opportunity to defuse a nuclear crisis in the Middle East would be a grave mistake,” the letter says.
Also significant in the Middle East are the consequences of Turkey’s fracturing relationship with Russia, said Galip Dalay, an associate fellow at the think tank. He said this led to a “Turkish, French and Greek joint effort in Mariupol” between nations that were previously at loggerheads.
Turkey could also play a role in the energy supply to Europe, he said.
But more important was that its closure of the Bosphorus to all warships entering the Black Sea under the Montreux Convention could have a significant long-term effect.
“A more prolonged period will have an impact on Russia in the conflict zone in Syria and Russian presence in the Eastern Mediterranean because now Russia will not easily move naval assets,” he said.
Turkey also closed its airspace to military and civilian traffic from Russia to Syria, which could create long-term problems for Moscow.
“We will see more and more friction emerging in the Turkey-Russian relationship,” Mr Dalay said.