The US is acting with impunity and believes its power matters more than international law, the head of the UN has told the BBC. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, António Guterres said Washington’s “clear conviction” was that multilateral solutions were irrelevant. What mattered, he continued, was the “exercise of the power and influence of the United States and sometimes in this respect by the norms of international law”. His comments come weeks after the US struck Venezuela and seized its president – and in the context of Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex Greenland. Guterres said he believed the founding principles of the UN – including the equality of member states – were now under threat. President Trump has previously been scathing in his criticism of the United Nations. He used his address at last September’s General Assembly to question its very purpose, claiming he had “ended seven unendable wars” on his own and the UN “did not even try to help in any of them”. “Later I realised that the UN wasn’t there for us,” he said.
US believes its power matters more than international law, UN chief António Guterres tells BBC
