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The_Guardian_-_2016-12-29

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United Nations<br />

Opinion<br />

<strong>The</strong> toothless United Nations must seize this<br />

last chance to save itself<br />

Mary Dejevsky<br />

As the new UN secretary general, António Guterres must make the security council matter again – we<br />

need it more than ever<br />

Illustration: Noma Bar<br />

Thursday <strong>29</strong> December <strong>2016</strong> 07.00 GMT Last modified on Thursday <strong>29</strong> December <strong>2016</strong> 07.03 GMT<br />

As the Syrian government and its backers tighten their grip on Aleppo, and Turkey and Russia reveal<br />

yet another ceasefire in Syria, the same questions trouble many an outraged onlooker. Has the United<br />

Nations ever seemed more toothless than it does now? Why did this congregation of almost 200<br />

countries lack the power first to prevent, and then to halt, such civilian bloodshed? Why had it been<br />

unable to convene all the parties around the same table to any productive end? And if the UN is<br />

incapable of acting in a crisis such as this, what is the point of it?<br />

António Guterres takes over as the new secretary general of the UN on Sunday at a time when the<br />

international organisation’s reputation is, at least from the perspective of many western countries, as<br />

low as it has ever been. <strong>The</strong> hopes that were invested in this successor to the failed League of

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