US believes its power matters more than international law — UN chief

United Nations (UN), Secretary-General, António Guterres, has said the United States is acting with impunity and believes its power matters more than international law.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Guterres said Washington held a “clear conviction” that multilateral solutions were irrelevant.

What mattered instead, he said, was the “exercise of the power and influence of the United States and sometimes in this respect by the norms of international law”.

His comments come weeks after the US struck Venezuela and seized its president, and amid United States President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex Greenland.

Guterres said the founding principles of the UN, including the equality of member states, were now under threat.

Trump has previously been scathing in his criticism of the United Nations.

In an address to last September’s General Assembly, he questioned the organisation’s purpose, claiming he had “ended seven unendable wars” on his own and that the UN “did not even try to help in any of them”.

“Later I realised that the UN wasn’t there for us,” he said.

Confronted with this assessment, Guterres admitted the organisation was struggling to make members abide by the international laws set out in the UN Charter.

The UN was “extremely engaged” in solving major global conflicts, he said, but added: “But the UN has no leverage – the big powers have stronger leverage.”

He questioned whether that leverage was being used to achieve lasting solutions or merely short-term fixes.

“There is a big difference between the two things,” he noted.

Guterres said the organisation needed reform to address the “dramatic problems and challenges” facing its 193 members.

“There are those that believe the power of law should be replaced by the law of power,” he said.

“Indeed, when one sees the present policy of the United States, there is a clear conviction that multilateral solutions are not relevant and that what matters is the exercise of the power and the influence of the United States and sometimes in this respect by the norms of international law”.

He said the UN Security Council, designed to maintain international peace and security, no longer reflected the world and was “ineffective”.

Any of the five permanent members — France, China, Russia, the UK and the US — can veto resolutions, a power both Russia and the US have used to block efforts to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Guterres said vetoes were being used to advance national interests and criticised the fact that “three European countries” held permanent seats.

He called for changes to the council’s composition to “regain legitimacy” and “give voice to the whole world”, and for limits on veto powers to prevent unacceptable “blockages”.

A former Portuguese prime minister, Guterres became UN secretary-general in 2017 and will leave the post at the end of this year.

In his annual address to the General Assembly, he warned of a world in chaos, “brimming with conflict, impunity, inequality and unpredictability”, and said “brazen violations of international law” were among the greatest threats to global order.

He identified Gaza as one of the conflicts in which the UN had struggled to make an impact.

For much of the war, Israel blocked international humanitarian organisations from bringing aid into the territory, preventing the UN from distributing supplies.

At one point, Israel backed an external contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Organisation, to take over work the UN had carried out for decades. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed while trying to access food at GHF sites.

Asked if he saw the UN as powerless in Gaza, Guterres said: “Of course, but let’s be clear.

“For a long time, Israel was saying that humanitarian aid was not distributed because the UN was not able to do so. Of course, whenever Israel would not allow us to move into Gaza, we couldn’t move into Gaza. And then there was a ceasefire, and a massive flow of humanitarian aid.”

He added: “We were ready, provided we had the conditions.”

Days earlier, Guterres told the General Assembly that “1945 problem-solving” could not address 2026 challenges, referring to the organisation’s founding structure.

He pointed to continuing crises, including the US-forced change of leadership in Venezuela, the killing of thousands of protesters by regime forces in Iran, and Trump’s stated aim of annexing Greenland.

Questions over the death of multilateralism and the failure of some leaders to defend international law are growing louder.

But Guterres said he remained optimistic.

“I think that people are sometimes reluctant to confront the powerful. But the truth is that if we don’t confront the powerful, we will never be able to have a better world.”

(BBC News)