This Week @UN: US bombs Iran; Guterres promotes fellow Portuguese; reformed multilateralism; US travel ban effects @UN; progressive global drug policy.
Plus: Haiti’s staggering rape numbers; Israeli-Iranian ceasefire; Gaza killing fields; UN Charter Day with Stephen Schlesinger.
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• Our #1 story this week: UN Reform: Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse, op-ed by Georgios Kostakos
• #1 story this month: US Is Blocking a UN Text on Gaza as a Ceasefire May Occur, by Damilola Banjo
• Our new column, US-UN Tracker, is dedicated to reporting on the US-UN relationship. It will feature relevant personnel news and excerpts from speeches by US diplomats as well as articles by PassBlue and links to other important coverage.
Here are the main principals of the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, or IO, which develops and carries out US policy at the UN and other multilateral bodies: McCoy Pitt, David McFarland, Brian Grimm and Ronald Criscuolo.
On June 24, Philémon Yang, president of the General Assembly, led an informal meeting with member states on the progress of the UN80 reform plan. Jake Sherman, a US-UN diplomat in charge of UN management and reform, highlighted US recommendations: Secretary-General António Guterres “must be bold” in his proposals “to eliminate duplication, achieve greater efficiency, increase impact and realize cost savings” as well as reducing posts, especially at senior levels, voluntarily restricting business-class travel and making better use of technology.
US Digs Heels in Over China’s Bid to Host Major ITU Conference in 2027
From PassBlue this week:
• Trump’s Orwellian Call for Peace Moments After Attacking Iran, op-ed by Mona Ali Khalil
• UN Boss Promotes Fellow Countryman Amid Widespread Job Cuts, by Damilola Banjo
• In Defense of Reformed Multilateralism, op-ed by Richard Ponzio & Nudhara Yusuf
• How US Travel Bans Will Undermine UN Diplomacy: An Explainer, by Damilola Banjo (a US-UN Tracker article)
• Historic Change is Underway for Rethinking Global Drug Policy, op-ed by Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch
Top UN news:
Sunday, June 22
• The UN Security Council met in an emergency session to respond to the US attacks against three Iranian nuclear sites on June 21. Members’ speeches ranged from pleas for “de-escalation” to condemnations. No formal Council statement was issued. Excerpts of some remarks (full transcript):
US: “Madam President, the time finally came for the United States, in the defense of its ally and in the defense of our own citizens and interest, to act decisively. The Iranian regime cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
France: “We urge all parties to show the utmost restraint and prevent any risk of escalation.”
South Korea: “The Republic of Korea reiterates its profound concern over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and expresses its sincere hope for urgent de-escalation.”
Russia: “Through their actions, the US has opened a Pandora’s box, no one knows what new catastrophes and suffering it will bring.”
Pakistan: “Madam President, these attacks set a dangerous precedent and pose a grave threat to the safety and security of populations across the region, and indeed the world.”
Monday, June 23
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Over 3,800 incidents of gender-based violence, primarily carried out by “armed men,” were reported in Haiti from January to May 2025, the UN said, with women and girls abused the most. The UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said that humanitarian affiliates are “working to provide referrals . . . for medical and psychosocial support services” to assist each case, almost half of them rape. Yet, protection services remain critically underfunded and access to care is severely limited.
• A Zambian peacekeeper was killed by unidentified armed men on June 20, 2025, as they attacked a patrol of Minusca. Thirty-three-year-old Corp. Stephen Muloké Sachachoma was a member of the Zambian military contingent deployed with the UN in the Central African Republic.
Tuesday, June 24
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres “welcomed” the ceasefire between Israel and Iran announced by US President Trump and urged Israel and Iran to respect the agreement fully, adding that he hopes “this ceasefire can be replicated in the other conflicts in the region.” Asked how negotiations on monitoring Iran’s nuclear program should progress, notably with the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the US withdrew from under the previous Trump administration], Dujarric said the UN wants its International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran to resume their pre-conflict dialogue.
Wednesday, June 25
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Dujarric was asked about Algerian Ambassador Amar Bendjama’s remarks in the Security Council to Virginia Gamba, UN envoy for children and armed conflict (CAAC). Bendjama had referred to her office’s “strikingly insufficient” response to the crisis in Gaza and criticized the “remarkably few statements” — two — Gamba issued this year. Guterres, Dujarric replied, “fully supports” the work that Gamba’s office does in Guterres’s name, documenting “the grave violations and the horrific suffering of children in many places around the world, including in Gaza.” When reporters challenged the latest CAAC report’s findings that only 1,269 children were killed in Gaza in 2024, Dujarric said Gamba uses a methodology mandated by the Security Council. Gamba, who is retiring, reportedly left the Council during Bendjama’s remarks. (PassBlue reported on Gamba’s “relative silence” regarding children’s killings in Gaza in 2024.)
Thursday, June 26
• Spokesperson’s briefing: Speaking on UN Charter Day, Guterres warned the General Assembly that the foundational UN document and its principles, written as a “declaration of hope,” are suffering “assaults . . . like never before,” with countries following “an all too familiar pattern: Follow when the Charter suits, ignore when it does not.” Guterres added that the Charter “is not optional, and it is not an à la carte menu. . . . We cannot and must not normalize violations of its most basic principles.”
• Video of June 23 ceremony, highlighting the original UN Charter.
• Stephen Schlesinger, the US historian, journalist, author of “Act of Creation: The Founding of the UN” and an editorial contributor to PassBlue, is featured in a video presentation produced by the office of the UN president of the General Assembly for UN Charter Day.
Friday, June 27
• In lieu of a daily briefing, Guterres told reporters at the UN that the Iran-Israel ceasefire provides an impetus for a truce in Gaza. He also reiterated that Israel is required by law to agree and facilitate humanitarian relief in Gaza amid daily killings of Palestinians at food distribution sites run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Guterres refuted accusations from the GHF that the UN, as a reporter put it, is running “a campaign of misinformation about the killings near their food distribution sites,” to which Guterres said the UN “didn’t invent the images everybody has seen.”
Another journalist asked about a report in Haaretz that Israeli soldiers “admitted that they were ordered to shoot unarmed Palestinians while they waited for aid.” Guterres’s reply: “We don’t need the reports of that nature to acknowledge that there have been massive violations of international law.” The US announced on June 27 a $30 million contribution to the GHF.
Media reports on Friday contend that opioid pills have been discovered in GHF bags of flour handed out at their hubs in Gaza. A GHF spokesperson told PassBlue that the reporting is “fake news/non sense.” Yet, Feroze Sidhwa, an American doctor who worked in Gaza this spring, said that the “common thought among Palestinians I spoke to was that the smuggling was being done by Bedouin tribes and was either approved by or ignored by Israel.” The logical assumption, he added, for ferreting drugs into Gaza was to sow chaos and weaken society.
ICYMI:
• The Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Awards to “Great Immigrants”
• Indigenous Women Fight Wildfires in Bolivia
• Gaza’s Grassroots Efforts to Ensure Humanitarian Aid Reaches Starving Palestinians
• Takeaways From AP Report on Wagner Allegedly Committing War Crimes by Promoting Atrocities in Mali
• Belgium Could Start a Lumumba Trial Next Year
This summary was updated to include information from Feroze Sidhwa about Gaza.
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on the UN Charter?
Arthur Bassas is a researcher and writer who graduated from St. Andrews in Scotland, majoring in international relations and terrorism. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and speaks English and French.
