UN chief says new virus poses ‘enormous’ risks

The U.N. secretary general said Tuesday that the
virus outbreak that began in China poses “a very dangerous situation” for the
world, but “is not out of control.”
Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press,
Antonio Guterres said that “the risks are enormous and we need to be prepared
worldwide for that.”
Guterres said his greatest worry was a spread of the
virus to areas with “less capacity in their health service,” particularly some
African countries. The World Health Organization is looking into how to help
handle such a development, he added.
Egypt recently reported its first case of the virus,
raising fears of its spread to the African continent.
The outbreak has infected more than 73,000 people
globally. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19,
referring to its origin late last year and the coronavirus that causes it.
China on Tuesday reported 1,886 new cases and 98
more deaths. That raised the number of deaths in mainland China to 1,868 and
the total number of confirmed cases to 72,436.
Travel to and from the worst-hit central China
region was associated with the initial cases of COVID-19 confirmed abroad. But
Japan, Singapore and South Korea have identified new cases without clear ties
to China or previously known patients, raising concern of the virus spreading
locally.
A report saying the disease outbreak has caused a
mild illness in most people raised optimism among global health authorities.
The U.N. chief was in Pakistan for a conference on
40 years of refugees fleeing neighboring war-torn Afghanistan.
In his interview with the AP, Guterres said that
today’s world is a “chaotic” one beset by multiple crises.
He decried the horrors of Syria’s nine-year-old
civil war. The U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock has warned that the most
recent exodus of refugees there — nearing 900,000 people fleeing fighting in
the northwest Idlib region — risks being the biggest humanitarian disaster of
the 21st century.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has, however, vowed to
fight rebels in the country to the bitter end. Backed by Iran and Russia, his
forces are making rapid progress against the last rebel-held enclaves in
northern Syria. Turkey backs opposition fighters there and has sent troops in
to try stopping the Syrian advance.
Some 3 million Syrian civilians are sheltering in
those last rebel-held areas and many of them have been forced out into
make-shift shelters and camps amid harsh winter conditions.
The suffering of Syrians is “horrible,” Guterres
said. He called for an immediate cease-fire, urging Turkey, Russia and Iran to
find a political solution.
Turning to the Libyan civil war, Guterres bemoaned
the blatant violations of a U.N.-imposed arms embargo on the North African
country.
Foreign powers have intervened in oil-rich Libya’s
conflict, apparently jockeying for control over its resources while supporting
its rival west- and east-based leaders.
“How many countries in Libya are interfering with
the conflict and independent of an arms embargo, decided by the Security
Council, they go on providing both personnel and equipment to Libya?” he asked.
Western Libyan forces rely on military assistance
from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia. On the
other side, Turkey, Italy and Qatar support the embattled Tripoli-based
government in the country’s east.
The U.N. chief put some of the blame for the state
of world affairs on the three leading powers, the United States, Russia and
China, calling their relationship “dysfunctional.” He said it has paralyzed the
U.N. Security Council.
“It is clear that we live in the moment where chaos
risks to transform our world in something much more unstable,” he said.
The U.N. leader, however, said U.S.-Taliban peace
talks presented a chance for ending one of the world’s longest running
conflicts, in Afghanistan.
“We absolutely need to seize this opportunity for
peace,″
Guterres said. Millions of Afghans are still living as refugees, he pointed
out.
The second half of the peace deal between the U.S.
and Taliban is expected to be signed on Feb. 29. It calls for Afghans on both
sides of the conflict to begin negotiations over the country’s post-war future.
Until now, the Taliban have refused direct talks with the Afghan government.
“It is in the interest of everybody to do everything
possible to guarantee that there is peace, that peace becomes a reality, that
it is sustainable and that Afghanistan can be integrated into international
community,″ said Guterres.