UN chief Antonio Guterres: ‘I hope the ICC can investigate Izium’

The war in Ukraine topped the list of issues concerning the UN chief during a lengthy interview with FRANCE 24 and Radio France Internationale (RFI) ahead of Tuesday's UN General Assembly.

"I fear a military escalation,” said Guterres in response to a question on the direction the war in Ukraine was likely to take. “The prospects for a peace negotiation are very distant. The Ukrainians and the Russians think they can win the war and I do not see any possibility of establishing a serious peace negotiation in the short term.”

The only positive development over the past six months, according to Guterres, was a July agreement on Ukrainian and Russian grain and fertiliser exports.

On the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which went into deep freeze after then-US president Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement, Guterres revealed that two weeks ago, he was "convinced we were about to reach an agreement. But then, things got more complicated", he admitted.

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), according to Guterres, "was one of the major diplomatic success stories in recent years, and it’s a great shame that the US pulled out of it". More than seven years later, Guterres stressed that "it is truly vital that we get back to that agreement."

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