United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres delivered his final General Assembly address on Tuesday morning, using the platform to press the case for what Breitbart described as globalist priorities: confronting the “climate crisis,” reviving the two-state solution in the Middle East, and defending a rules-based international order against what he called rising fragmentation.
The speech came as Guterres’ second and final term at the head of the U.N. nears its end in January, and as a behind-closed-doors race to succeed him is already underway. According to Breitbart’s account, the outgoing secretary-general made no attempt to soften positions that have grown contentious even among some of the U.N.’s own climate-conference participants — most notably his insistence on phasing out fossil fuels.
An apocalyptic framing
Guterres opened with a stark assessment of the global landscape, telling delegates that the divisions between nations have grown dangerous. “The fault lines in our world are widening; cracks have become canyons,” he said, painting a picture of a planet beset by what he termed “despicable cruelty.”
He linked climate change and artificial intelligence as twin forces reshaping the world at a pace leaders have struggled to match. “The climate crisis went from distant warning to daily reality and artificial intelligence moved at a speed that has blindsided even those who created it,” Guterres said, adding that these were “not separate crises” but “chapters of the same story, the story of power: who has it, who is denied it, and how it is used and how it is changing.”
That theme of power — who wields it and how — ran through the address. Guterres said the shift toward a multipolar world is “irreversible,” but warned that nations pursuing their own interests risk a more dangerous outcome unless they accept a shared framework of international rules.
Two paths
The secretary-general framed the moment as a choice between two futures. One, he said, is “a world of fragmentation and transactionalism, a world of rising tensions and deepening mistrust, of fractured markets and weakened institutions, of shrinking cooperation and zero-sum calculations” — and he conceded that “in many respects, that is the trajectory we are on today.”
The alternative he urged was “networked multipolarity, a world built on interdependence and sustained by an advanced web of economic, political, social, and technological connections.” He described his preferred vision as one in which “multiple centers of influence coexist with a common framework of international law and shared rules,” overcoming both “hegemonic tendencies” and what he called “the great fracture.”
By that term, Guterres meant the Cold War-era division of the globe into “two rival blocs with separate economic, technological, and security systems” — a structure he clearly hopes to avoid repeating.
For that vision to take hold, he argued, “superpowers” must recognize “that their power isn’t so super.” The source article noted that the United States is the only generally recognized superpower, leaving unclear which other nations Guterres intended to include in that category alongside the U.N.’s host country.
Security Council reform and fossil fuels
Guterres also returned to a long-standing proposal to overhaul the U.N. Security Council, including granting permanent seats to African nations. According to Breitbart, he offered no explanation for why he had not pursued those reforms during his decade at the organization’s helm.
On climate, the secretary-general celebrated the U.N.’s achievement of “gender parity” in senior positions and renewed his demand for “a future without fossil fuels,” declaring that “polluters must pay.” Breitbart characterized part of his remarks as odd, saying he appeared to credit himself with having predicted this summer’s deadly floods in Nepal and to blame fossil fuel users for the glacial collapse linked to that disaster.
Middle East and Iran
Turning to the Middle East, Guterres addressed Iran’s role in regional waterways, demanding that “navigational rights and freedoms must be fully restored in accordance with international law.” The source article noted that in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Houthi proxies have been directly responsible for eroding respect for those navigational rights.
Guterres also called for a return to the “two-state solution” — a framework that would create a Palestinian state from territory bordering Israel. Breitbart observed that the plan has lost support among many interested parties in both Israel and the Muslim world, where many regard the Israeli state itself as illegitimate.
A farewell with a promise
In closing, Guterres acknowledged that he will soon leave the secretary-general post. “Wherever I will be, whatever I will be doing, I will keep championing the conviction that peace is possible, that human dignity is universal, that the power of law must prevail over the law of power, and that our common future is worth fighting for,” he said.
The address amounts to a parting manifesto from a secretary-general whose tenure has been marked by persistent friction with member states — particularly the United States and Israel — over climate policy, Middle East diplomacy and the balance of authority between the U.N. and its members. With his term ending in January and the succession contest unfolding away from public view, Tuesday’s speech may serve as Guterres’ final extended statement of purpose on the world stage.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/22/u-n-boss-antonio-guterres-scolds-america-repeats-stale-climate-crisis-talking-points-final-general-assembly-speech/