'Driver of global instability': UN chief says Middle East fighting must stop

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has said that fighting must stop on all fronts in the Middle East as it is increasingly becoming a driver of global instability, according to Reuters. The UN chief noted that trade through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed, energy markets have been upended, prices of food and key fertilisers have surged, and supply chains are buckling. The World Food Programme warned that as many as 45 million people could face acute food insecurity as a result, while rising prices and slowing growth threaten to push millions more back into poverty, he noted. He called the US announcement of an agreement for Hamas to relinquish its weapons and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza "good news." "It was announced already that there is a roadmap to implement these objectives. That roadmap must be followed without any questions, scepticism, or determination to undermine it. Now is the time for both sides to implement what was agreed," said Guterres.