The new United Nations chief, Antonio Guterres, warned Tuesday that the world body faces “very challenging times” and asked for support of reforms to make it better able to deal with them.

Axar.az reports that, before beginning his first day of work at UN headquarters in New York, Guterres, who succeeded Ban Ki-moon as secretary-general on January 1, addressed staff and diplomats about the need for an overhaul of the international organization.
“I think it is useful to say there are no miracles,” he said. “I am sure I am not a miracle maker.”

The unanimous election of Guterres — who fought for migrants’ rights as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for a decade — has energized UN diplomats who see him as a skilled politician who may be able to overcome the divisions crippling the 193-nation UN.

In his remarks to personnel, Guterres underscored the complex crises in the world that the UN must deal with to foster peace.
“We should have no illusions,” he said. “We are facing very challenging times.”
“We see everywhere in the world conflicts that multiply and are interlinked and have triggered this new phenomenon of global terrorism.”
Guterres noted, in this context, “the generosity of the Turkish people… victim of a terrible terrorist attack” at a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve.