UN chief calls for full opening of Strait of Hormuz

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for the Strait of Hormuz to be fully reopened without restrictions, warning that the ongoing crisis between Iran and the United States is driving up oil prices and threatening food security across Africa and beyond.

“My strong appeal is for the negotiations to go on until that diplomatic solution is found, the ceasefire to be maintained, and in between, the Strait of Hormuz to be completely open… Any restart of the fighting would have terrible consequences,” Guterres said.

Speaking in Nairobi ahead of the Africa Forward Summit, the UN chief emphasized that the Middle East emergency is no “distant crisis,” noting that roughly 13 percent of Africa’s imports—primarily oil and fertilizers—pass through the crucial waterway linking the Persian Gulf to global markets.

“It is absolutely essential and we have appealed to the two parties to open the Strait of Hormuz completely, without restrictions… [it] is a must from the point of view of the interests of the international community as a whole,” he told journalists in the Kenyan capital.

“That is the only way to bring energy prices and fertilizer prices back to the levels that we had before the war,” he added.

Guterres cautioned that while Kenya is less vulnerable because most of its planting season is over, many other African nations still depend on fertilizers and agricultural inputs produced in the Gulf.

“Without fertilizers, you can imagine that we risk to have a serious food security problem next year,” he explained, noting that urea, a widely used nitrogen-rich fertilizer, has surged more than 35 percent over the past month during the peak planting season.

The Secretary-General’s remarks came as he inaugurated new UN offices and attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a new conference facility at the UN Office in Nairobi, underscoring the UN’s ongoing engagement in regional and global crises.

By Vafa Guliyeva