--- title: 'Open the Strait,' Urges U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres | TIME description: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the U.S. and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying that “everybody is paying the price” as the conflict continues into its second month. “My appeal is: open the strait,” he said at the 2026 TIME100 Summit in New York City on Wednesday, April 22. “Let ships go in, let ships go by. And let's create the conditions for the global economy to recover and, for the people that are suffering, to end their suffering.” Guterres spoke of the global impact of the war, the necessity of a global transition to renewable energy, and how to continue supporting countries in need in the face of shrinking global aid during a panel titled “The Next World Order” moderated by TIME Senior Correspondent Justin Worland. canonical: https://time.com/video/i8DKq7ie/ og:title: 'Open the Strait,' Urges U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres og:description: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the U.S. and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying that “everybody is paying the price” as the conflict continues into its second month. “My appeal is: open the strait,” he said at the 2026 TIME100 Summit in New York City on Wednesday, April 22. “Let ships go in, let ships go by. And let's create the conditions for the global economy to recover and, for the people that are suffering, to end their suffering.” Guterres spoke of the global impact of the war, the necessity of a global transition to renewable energy, and how to continue supporting countries in need in the face of shrinking global aid during a panel titled “The Next World Order” moderated by TIME Senior Correspondent Justin Worland. og:url: https://time.com/video/i8DKq7ie/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/i8DKq7ie/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Open the Strait,' Urges U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres twitter:description: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the U.S. and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying that “everybody is paying the price” as the conflict continues into its second month. “My appeal is: open the strait,” he said at the 2026 TIME100 Summit in New York City on Wednesday, April 22. “Let ships go in, let ships go by. And let's create the conditions for the global economy to recover and, for the people that are suffering, to end their suffering.” Guterres spoke of the global impact of the war, the necessity of a global transition to renewable energy, and how to continue supporting countries in need in the face of shrinking global aid during a panel titled “The Next World Order” moderated by TIME Senior Correspondent Justin Worland. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/i8DKq7ie/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * World # 'Open the Strait,' Urges U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 'Open the Strait,' Urges U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres [Watch (HLS stream): 'Open the Strait,' Urges U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/i8DKq7ie.m3u8) (14:43)  _Published 2026-04-22. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the U.S. and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying that “everybody is paying the price” as the conflict continues into its second month. “My appeal is: open the strait,” he said at the 2026 TIME100 Summit in New York City on Wednesday, April 22. “Let ships go in, let ships go by. And let's create the conditions for the global economy to recover and, for the people that are suffering, to end their suffering.” Guterres spoke of the global impact of the war, the necessity of a global transition to renewable energy, and how to continue supporting countries in need in the face of shrinking global aid during a panel titled “The Next World Order” moderated by TIME Senior Correspondent Justin Worland._ --- Apr 22, 2026 8:25 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Maria Sharapova On Refusing To Soften Her Edges](/video/m89lmJ0R/) ### Maria Sharapova On Refusing To Soften Her Edges [Victoria Beckham on Branding the Personal at 2026 TIME100 Summit](/video/BlXnnRpH/) ### Victoria Beckham on Branding the Personal at 2026 TIME100 Summit [Antonio Guterres Nominated As U.N. Secretary General](/video/uCorpg0H/) ### Antonio Guterres Nominated As U.N. Secretary General --- ## Transcript Well, good morning to you. Um, there's a lot going on in the world, and we're really grateful to have you here. I want to start with a speech that you gave last week in The Hague. You called for leaders to, quote, reject a future ruled by coercion and violence. What are the risks of a world where power replaces cooperation? Well, imagine a country and imagine that in that country, laws do not matter. What is the result? Is chaos. The same applies to the world. If international law is disrespected, if countries do not care about the norms they have themselves established, the result is the kind of chaos we are witnessing in so many parts of the world. So it is absolutely essential that the primacy of law is re-established, and it is essential that all countries accept that international cooperation must prevail over competition, and that law must prevail over the use of force. So that's applause worthy. One of the obviously, the biggest issues of the day is the war in Iran. And I'm curious about the UN's role in the 1960s, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the UN played a pivotal role helping bridge the divide between the US and the USSR. Obviously, the US and Israel are on one side and Iran on the other side, and the conflict today. What is the UN's role and your role more more specifically in helping bridge that, that divide and coming to some sort of conclusion? Well, we have been very active. Of course, we are aware of the realities of today's world and how power is distributed in today's world. I appointed a special envoy that has been visiting all the countries involved. We have presented a project taking into account that the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and that we are having a dramatic problem beyond the oil and gas with fertilizers. We presented something inspired in the Black Sea Glen initiative for the possibility of fertilizer products to be able to circulate. But our main appeal at the present moment is very simple and appeal to the US and appeal to Iran. Let the Strait of Hormuz be open and be open for everybody, because the fact that both sides are closing it, when I or another, they might be doing some harm to each other, but they are doing much more harm to the whole world. Everybody is paying a price. Countries and families and of course, the countries and the families that are more vulnerable are paying the highest price. And then things are so absurd that look at the US where we are, there is nothing that changed in the production and refining and distribution of gas. So theoretically, the price of gas should not have changed. But we are going to a gas station and we pay the double than what we paid before the war. So markets are organized in such a way that everybody, everywhere, even if they are totally far away from what's happening, is paying a heavy price. So my appeal is open the strait, let ships go in, let ships go by, and let's create the conditions for the global economy to recover and for the people that are suffering to end this suffering. So I want to pick up on one of the things you mentioned oil and gas, and I got to know you through your climate work. You've been very outspoken on climate. And of course, oil and gas has been one of the key challenges. It could create it will create poverty, the lack of it that is in many places around, around the world. And it reminds us of the vulnerability that we have to this energy system that's reliant on fossil fuels. And I guess I'm curious from your perspective, is this an opportunity to pivot away from fossil fuels, to pivot away from oil and gas? And are you making that case to leaders in the UN countries? Well, this is a moment where people is suffering, where we have a perspective of war. So I've been careful in talking about this because I respect that suffering. But one thing is clear. And what is clear is that today, uh, renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuel produced energy. and not only renewable energy is cheaper, but the markets have already understood it, and the investment in renewable energy last year was more than the double than the investment in fossil fuels. It is true in capacity that has increased much more in renewables than in fossil fuel. It's not yet true in production because we have problems with grids, we have problems with storage. So there is still a lot of things to be done in order to fully benefit from, um, from renewables. But one thing is clear. I mean, the sun will not disappear. The wind will not stop blowing. So every country that bases its energy in fossil fuels will have safety in the use of energy in with renewables, we have safety. When we see what we see today in the Strait of Hormuz. It is obvious that fossil fuels are not only more expensive, are not only the, I would say, product of the past that sooner or later will move out in relation to renewables, but they do not guarantee safety because they are not distributed everywhere as renewables energy can be. And so I think this is a moment to think seriously about the need to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels. They will not disappear from one day to the other, but to accelerate the transition to renewables. And then there is another reason which is related to climate change. Now, we know scientists have demonstrated that we are going over the 1.5 degrees. Soon we will have an overshoot. We hope that that overshoot will be short. We hope that it will not be very high. And it is still possible if we adopt the right policies to come to the end of the century below 1.5 degrees. But that overshoot will have an enormous cost. I mean, in storms, in hurricanes, in droughts, and in all other aspects in which climate change is destroying so many lives and creating so many problems around the world. And so it's absolutely essential at the present moment to recognize that we must drastically reduce emissions. And unfortunately, we are not yet in that way. According to the projects presented by the governments around the world, the so-called nationally determined contributions will be reducing emissions by about 10% until 2035, and we would need 60%. So this is the time to give priority again to the need To drastically reduce emissions and the need to support those that will be suffering more. And obviously, small island developing states, several African countries with dramatic areas of drought and coastal areas that are becoming more and more threatened by rising sea level, even here in the United States. Look at the situation in Miami. Yeah, it's great to remind us, even though we can talk about clean energy for other purposes, that climate is still critically important. So I appreciate your voice on that. You know, you were speaking about the challenges in some of the developing countries and least developed countries, small island states, etc.. And of course, one of the things that's critical is aid and development assistance. And that's one of the heartbreaking things to see get pulled back the lives that are being lost in this moment, not just from the U.S., but also from Europe. We see in the Gulf now with this crisis, the possibility of aid being pulled back from Gulf countries. Um, what is your message to leaders of countries that are pulling back aid, and what is the solution to this really heartbreaking challenge? I think that there are two things that can be done. First, aid should be re-established at the levels that are necessary, but on the other hand, we can multiply the resources we have. I'll give you an example. If we give $1 to a country for a project, it's $1. If we put $1 in the capital of a multilateral development bank, the world Bank, or any other bank, that bank goes to the market and that dollar becomes 7 or $8. No increase in public expenditure, no increase in taxes. But we are able to use the instruments of the market to multiply the resources that exist. Special drawing rights. They cost nothing to anybody. They were used in the Covid, as you remember. I think there are good reasons for them to be used in other occasions. It's a way of course, it's not technically correct to say to create money out of nothing, but it's a way to increase the resources available for countries around the world. For instance, public money, if you give a guarantee, instead of giving the money, you allow private to invest. And so you multiply your resources because the guarantee is a cost that is much smaller than the amount that you can mobilise with the private sector. So it's absolutely vital that when resources are decreasing, we use those resources in a way that multiplies their impact. And there are ways to do so. And my appeal is for those that are in government or for those that are in the the boards of banks or for those that are in the different organizations that are relevant for these. Be able to, I would say, forget the bureaucracy, be able to forget the tradition, the way that you have always done things. And understand that in the moment in which so many people are suffering, it is absolutely essential to increase aid. But even more important than that, to multiply the resources that exist using the market mechanisms that allow to do it effectively. It's important that we have tools even even though we're pulling back, there are tools that need to be used. It's a great, a great point, um, coming close to the end of our time, but I have two questions I want to get in one, just a quick reflection. When we first met, uh, right at the beginning of your tenure, you told me about how you wanted to modernize the UN, make it Really useful in the 21st century. Where have you succeeded and where have you come short? Falling, falling short on that? Well, we are doing now. Um, we started reforms as soon as I became secretary general. But just to give you two examples of what we are doing now. This year we decided that we would be able to reduce 22% of the posts in the Secretariat of the UN. And we did it in a way that nobody noticed. We did it in a way that was very effective. I know some experiences of reducing staff in bureaucracies that create a lot of trouble. We did it 22% without any negative impact because we had prepared that reform seriously. We had a problem, as you know, with the financing for our peacekeeping operations, we were able to reduce 25% of the forces all over the world without creating any problem, without creating any, because we have the flexibility and the capacity to slim when necessary. We had an enormous reduction in aid, as you said, and our agencies have reduced their dimension. They've I mean, of course, a lot of stuff to leave, but nobody no entity collapsed. And we were able to go on delivering to the people we care for, even if unfortunately, at a much lower level than what we did in the past. And we are doing things like, for instance, all agencies in an emergency will now have a supply chain that is common for all of them. So we are using a lot of instruments to make the UN much more effective, much more cost effective. And the truth is that we are doing it, I would say, and I say this with I've been in government, I think we are doing this in a more effective way than most government administrations. So one final question. Um, you're in your final months as secretary general. The UN has been around for 80 years. Nine secretary generals, um all men. Is it time for a woman, a secretary general? Obviously, I have a problem. I cannot interfere in the electoral campaign. Of. Course. And we have men and women. Yeah. So I think, uh, my opinions are well known in this regard. So I don't need to express them in the moment in which the candidates are campaigning and they are doing it yesterday and today in the General Assembly. But I believe my opinions are well known in this regard. Okay. Well thank you. Thank you to Secretary General. It's great to have you. Thank you very much. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'Open the Strait,' Urges U.N. 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