There's a "clear lack of confidence" in the United Nations (UN) Security Council, the body tasked with keeping international peace, the head of the global organization admitted on Monday.
The UN Security Council has 15 members including the U.S. and Russia. Given that conflicts in places like Syria have yet to end, the body has come under fire for being ineffective.
António Guterres, the recently appointed secretary-general of the UN, spoke about the growing mistrust between the public and governments, and in the process, said that the Security Council could do better.
"(There's a) clear lack of confidence in the Security Council," Guterres told delegates at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
He added that there is "no longer a perception that it corresponds to the logic of today's world".
Of the 15 members of the UN Security Council, the U.S., U.K., China, Russia and France are known as permanent members. This gives them the right to veto a proposal. Russia has used this during negotiations about action in Syria. For example, Russia vetoed a proposal in October to stop the bombing of Syrian city Aleppo.
Only weeks into his job, Guterres, who has served as the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees and was originally from Portugal, has pledged to reforms the organization. He admitted rules and regulations often "paralyze" the institution. The secretary-general promised to make the UN "more nimble, more decentralized".
His comments were made amid a broader assessment of the negative impacts that globalization has had.
"Lots of people feel that they were left behind and that the … have not taken care of them," Guterres said.
On top of the assessment of his own organization, Guterres drove home the point that without co-operation between countries, there would be no end to conflicts in Syria.
"There is no solution to the Syrian problem without a comprehensive political solution in which all Syrians feel they are properly represented," Guterres said.