The UN has a “seven-day plan” ready to help prevent a global humanitarian disaster due to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Jorge Moreira da Silva, director of UNOPS, said today.
In an interview with the ONU News portal, the head of the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS) warned that the logistical limitations resulting from the closure of one of the largest navigation routes on the planet could trigger an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy.
According to a study by the World Food Program (WFP) cited by Moreira da Silva, 45 million people could be affected by a historic food crisis due to the imminent collapse of the global fertilizer market, caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
The direct result of the war – and the instability in the maritime passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman – was a sharp increase in the price of fertilizers, one of which, urea, is one of the most used in agriculture, being essential for the growth of crops such as corn, wheat and citrus fruits.
“The price of urea increased by 65%. The price of ammonium increased by 40% and, today, fertilizer producers in African countries, such as Morocco and South Africa, or in China, or in Turkey, or in India, are already being heavily affected by this disruption of the fertilizer market”explained the Portuguese, who was appointed executive director of UNOPS in March 2023.
“Therefore, the problem is no longer the fertilizer market in the Gulf of Persia, it is the global market that is experiencing extreme instability and this could give rise, if we do not address it quickly, to a food crisis of enormous proportions: the WFP recently presented a study that says that, in the short term, we could have 45 million people falling into severe food insecurity, with hunger and malnutrition”he stressed.
Jorge Moreira da Silva considers that the issue is no longer strictly political but has become “a mathematical and logistical drama”: with the threats to circulation in the Strait of Hormuz, the elements of the production chain that guarantee food for millions have become hostages to the conflict.
The UNOPS leader points to a new mechanism designed to circumvent the logistical blockage as a possible solution, which, in just one week, could save the global food production chain.
And, faced with the obstacle of war bureaucracy, he asks world leaders for an urgent political mandate to act, maintaining that the structure “is ready to be activated in seven days”, with only an international “green light” needed before the crisis reaches the point of no return.
The official indicated that the Persian Gulf was just the trigger of a crisis that is already suffocating the market from Africa to Asia and that, to avoid the worst, UNOPS has “the emergency button” ready to be activated, guaranteeing to put the UN rescue mechanism in the field, in just one week, whose operating mode is adjusted, with logistics in place, monitors in place and the structure on maximum alert.
“On the day that there is a political agreement from the States so that we can activate the mechanism, we will need seven days. In seven days, we will have our monitors on the ground, in the ports of the Gulf region, and the fertilizer transport approval system also operational”he assured.
“This gives a very clear idea, from a logistical point of view, of the level of preparation and speed that we are putting into this – but we cannot move forward until there is a mandate, the countries have to give us a mandate so that we can put this mechanism into practice, and we are not at that stage yet”he added.
Moreira da Silva’s premise is that one cannot wait for the end of the war to resolve the fertilizer crisis.
“Peace is the ideal, but producing food is urgent”he stated, which is why he is “intensifying diplomatic action” in New York.
“There are an increasing number of country delegations contacting me to find out more about the mechanism and to support the idea”he said.
In the corridors of the UN, conversations with representatives from Iran, the United States, Israel and the countries of the Persian Gulf focus on isolating humanitarian logistics from military issues, to prevent the logistical bottleneck of the Strait of Hormuz from becoming the epicenter of a global famine.
Lusa
