UNITED NATIONS, Apr 14 (APP):UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “not surprised” following the leaked Pentagon documents that reportedly suggest that the United States was spying on his phone, his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said, without indicating what action the world body plans to take in this regard.
“The Secretary-General has been at his job for quite some time. He’s been in politics and a public figure for quite some time. So he’s not surprised, I think, by the fact that people are spying on him and listening on his private conversations,” the spokesperson said in response to a barrage of questions at the regular noon briefing at U.N. Headquarters in New York on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, you know either through for various reasons, it allows such private conversations to be distorted and made public,” he added.
Asked if the UN chief will be protesting to the US, Dujarric said, “We’re not in the habit of revealing his private phone calls with various member states”.
Leaked Pentagon classified documents showed that the US was monitoring Guterres because it believed he was too soft on Russia, according to media reports.
It also revealed a private conversation of Guterres and his deputy about the Black Sea grain deal, which was brokered with Russia and Ukraine by the UN and Turkey to allow Ukrainian grain exports shut own during following the war.
“The Secretary-General is not soft on any one country another”, Dujarric said.
“He has been very clear about the violations of international law, very clear about the violations of the charter. He says the same thing when he’s in Moscow, when he’s in Kyiv, when he’s in New York, and that’s in the open record,” he said.
“Our efforts, his efforts have been to mitigate the impact of the war on the world’s poorest. And that means doing what we can to drive down the price of food and the price of grain and fertilizer worldwide,” he added.
Further asked what precautions did the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General were taking, the spokesperson said, I don’t think me answering publicly what precautions we take in detail for our phone calls would be helpful in trying to protect the sanctity of communications.”