United Nations, June 20: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for investment in development to prevent conflict.

Prevention is the best cure for instability and conflict. And there is no better preventive measure than investing in development, he told a Security Council open debate on poverty, underdevelopment and conflict.

“Peace is not built in conference rooms. Peace is built in classrooms, in clinics, in communities. Peace is built when people have hope, opportunity and a stake in their future,” he said on Thursday. “Investing in development today means investing in a more peaceful tomorrow.”

He warned that the world is losing ground in this respect, Xinhua news agency reported.

“After decades of steady progress, we’re facing a development emergency. Ten years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, two-thirds of the targets are lagging,” said Guterres. “And developing countries are being battered and bruised by limited fiscal space, crushing debt burdens and skyrocketing prices.”

The engine of development is sputtering, he said. “We must renew domestic and global commitments to get public and private finance flowing to the areas of greatest need. We need to provide urgent debt relief for countries drowning in unsustainable debt service. And we must reform the global financial architecture to reflect today’s realities and the urgent needs of developing countries.”

The UN chief voiced concern over the vicious cycle of conflict and poverty.

The flames of conflict are too often lit and fed by persistent poverty and growing inequalities, he said. “Time and again, we’ve seen conflict engulfing lives and institutions, wiping out development gains, and uprooting millions of people. At the same time, we’ve seen how poverty, underdevelopment, inequality, injustice, hunger and exclusion can light the fuse of instability and conflict.”

It is no coincidence that nine of the 10 countries with the lowest Human Development Indicators are currently in a state of conflict. Forty per cent of the 700 million people living in extreme poverty live in conflict-affected or fragile settings. And the situation is only getting worse, he said.

Solutions are in short supply because of rampant geopolitical mistrust and divisions. The global economy is slowing, trade tensions are rising and aid budgets are being slashed while military spending soars. If current trends continue, two-thirds of the world’s poor will live in conflict-affected or fragile countries by 2030, warned Guterres.

The message is clear. The farther a country is from sustainable and inclusive development, the closer it is to instability, and even conflict, he said. “Let’s re-commit to the solidarity and multilateral spirit that has defined our organization across eight decades. And let’s ensure that the dividends of peace, prosperity and security are shared by all.”

New York, June 20: US President Donald Trump will make a decision on whether he will order a strike against Iran in the next two weeks, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing.

“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiation that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go in the next two weeks,” Leavitt read a statement on Thursday, from Trump who responded to speculation about whether the United States would directly get involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel.

Iran must agree to no enrichment of uranium, and Tehran must not be able to achieve a nuclear weapon as part of any diplomatic agreement, Leavitt said.

Correspondence between the United States and Iran “has continued” as the two sides engage in negotiations, Leavitt said, echoing earlier Thursday reports that US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have talked by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran on Jun 13, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, media reported.

The talks included a brief discussion of a US proposal for Iran aiming to create a regional consortium that would enrich uranium outside of Iran, which Tehran has so far rejected, local media quoted three diplomats as saying on the condition of anonymity.

Araghchi told Witkoff that Tehran “could show flexibility in the nuclear issue” if the US government pressured Israel to end the war, adding Tehran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped the attacks, local media quoted a regional diplomat.

Trump approved attack plans on Iran on Tuesday night, but held off making a final decision in case Iran agrees to abandon its nuclear program, media reported.

Trump has met with his national security team in the Situation Room each day since Tuesday.

Tel Aviv, June 20: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during his visit to the Soroka Hospital in Israel’s Beersheba, condemned Iran for carrying out a ballistic missile strike at the hospital, which left several patients, doctors, and staff seriously injured.

Criticising it as a blatant attack on civilians, Netanyahu asserted that while Israel is conducting precision strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes, Iran has targeted a hospital with a children’s ward.

“I am here at the Soroka Hospital in Be’er-Sheva, together with the Minister of Health, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen, a resident of the South, and also, not for the first time, the director of the Soroka Hospital. We see the whole difference here. We are hitting with precision the targets of the nuclear and missile programs, and they’re hitting a hospital, where people can’t even get up and run away,” read a statement issued by the Israeli PM’s office on Thursday.

“They’re hitting not far from here — there’s a children and babies ward here. That’s the whole difference between a democracy taking lawful action to save itself from these murderers —and these murderers whose aim is to destroy every one of us. Each and every one of us, until the very last one among us. I think that tells you everything,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar launched a scathing attack on his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi for calling the missile strike in Soroka Hospital an attack on “Israeli Military Command, Control and Intelligence Headquarters”.

“Araghchi You lie! I was just at Soroka Hospital with dozens of international journalists. They saw with their own eyes the brutal aftermath of your regime’s missile strike on a civilian hospital that treats Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. No AI lies, no fake maps can change the facts. Your barbarism is exposed to the world,” Sa’ar wrote in a post on X.

Araghchi in a social media post on Thursday stated, “Earlier today, our powerful Armed Forces accurately eliminated an Israeli Military Command, Control & Intelligence HQ and another vital target. The blast wave caused superficial damage to a small section of the nearby, and largely evacuated, Soroka Military Hospital.”

He claimed that the facility is mainly used to treat Israeli soldiers “engaged in the Genocide in Gaza 25 miles away, where Israel has destroyed or damaged 94 per cent of Palestinian hospitals.”

Following the Iranian missile attack in the hospital on Thursday, Netanyahu vowed a fierce response against what he called the “terrorist tyrants” in Tehran.

“This morning, Iran’s terrorist tyrants launched missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in the centre of the country. We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran,” said Netanyahu in a post on X after the attack.