It’s time to end the war, UN chief tells US, Israel

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has asked the United States and Israel to put an end to their three-week-old war on Iran, which has led to the death of over 2,000 people across West Asia.

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Mr Guterres, in his address at the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday, said the war risks getting out of control and hurting more civilians in the region.

“First, to the United States & Israel: It’s high time to end this war that is risking getting out of control, causing immense suffering to civilians,” he said.

The UN chief said the war risks having “dramatic effects on the global economy & potentially tragic consequences, especially for the least developed countries.”

PREMIUM TIMES reports that the US and Israel commenced a joint attack on Iran on the last day of February, which has led to a full-scale war affecting many countries in the Middle East.

At the time, Mr Trump claimed that the attack on Iran was to eliminate the “imminent threat” from the Iranian regime to the American people. This reason has since been modified and contradicted many times by top officials in the Trump administration.

At least 13 US soldiers have been killed in the war. Also, global oil supply has been disrupted, particularly following Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, leading to a global increase in the price of petroleum products.

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Mr Guterres also spoke directly to Iran at the summit.

He said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is causing “enormous pain” to the people across the world who have no link to the conflict.

He also urged Tehran to stop the attack on Gulf States, noting that they were “never parties to the conflict.x

“The Security Council has condemned these attacks, has ordered them to stop and it has ordered the opening of the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

“It’s time for the force of the law to prevail over the law of the force,” he noted. “It’s time for diplomacy to prevail over war.”

Another US aircraft targeted

Meanwhile, a US fighter jet was struck by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile on Thursday, forcing it to make an emergency landing at an undisclosed base in the Middle East.

The F-35 aircraft is the most advanced fighter jet the US possesses, leading to concerns that Iran may have detected how to successfully target the aircraft.

Although Iran has successfully downed many American drones, the US has not admitted that any of its manned aircraft were downed by Iran.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that three US F-15 fighter jets were shot down on 2 March in Kuwait. However, the US said they were mistakenly shot down by Kuwait over its airspace. All six crew members ejected safely.

Also, a US refuelling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, leading to the death of all six crew members. Although an Iran-linked Iraqi group said it shot down the aircraft, the US said the crash was not due to hostile fire.

On the latest attack, Tim Hawkin, the CENTCOM spokesperson, said the aircraft landed safely, “the pilot is in stable condition”, and the “incident is under investigation.”

READ ALSO: US/Israel-Iran War (Day 20): War threatens global gas supply

Sustaining the war is now becoming more expensive for the US, with the Pentagon requesting more than $200 billion.

The New York Times reports that the request was sent to the White House, where it will be reviewed before it is formally submitted to Congress.

Quoting officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the New York Times reports that the sum requested is nearly a quarter of the US’s entire annual defence budget.