Both European Union Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez supported the call of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to activate Article 99 of the Charter of the international organization, in which he warns of a global threat posed by the Gaza Strip war.
Borrell said that the UN Security Council must act immediately to prevent the complete collapse of the living situation in Gaza, and called on the Europeans and their partners in the UN Security Council to support the activation of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which is resorted to when international peace is threatened.
Before that, the Spanish Prime Minister expressed his full support for the request of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, from the UN Security Council to establish a humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip.
Sanchez wrote on the X platform that the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip is unbearable, and declared his full support for Guterres regarding his activation of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter.
For his part, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, stressed the need to allow humanitarian relief to enter Gaza immediately and on a large scale.
Guterres had previously announced the activation of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which is rarely used and authorizes him to “draw the attention of the Security Council to any matter that he deems may threaten the protection of international peace and security.”
Guterres sent an unprecedented message to the Security Council regarding the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, warning of its dangers to the world. He also warned that public order in the Strip was about to collapse completely.
Israel quickly launched a sharp attack on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and renewed its demand for him to resign after his call to stop the war on the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said, “Guterres’ term poses a threat to world peace.”
What does activating Article 99 mean?
The last time Article 99 was activated was in 1989, and its activation means that the Secretary-General of the international organization can now use the authority granted to him by the Charter.
Upon activation of Article 99, the Secretary-General has the right to initiate discussions in the Security Council to pressure it to take decisive measures to maintain international peace and security.
Activating Article 99 would push the Council to focus on its role in preventing the outbreak of conflicts, including the use of Chapter Seven tools that authorize the Security Council to take effective steps to maintain global security.
Article 99 was used in the inter-Korean war in 1950, the conflict in the Congo with Belgian forces in 1960, the Cyprus crisis in 1974, the civil war in Lebanon in 1976, the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1978, the issue of the US embassy hostages in Tehran in 1979, and the Iran-Iraq war in 1979. 1980.
