UNITED NATIONS, April 13. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is not surprised that his private phone calls could have been tapped, Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, commenting on media reports claiming that the US listened to Guterres’ phone calls.
"The Secretary General has been in his job for quite some time. He's been in politics and public figure for quite some time. So he's not surprised by the fact that people are spying on him and listening on his private conversations. Unfortunately, you know, for various reasons it allows such private conversations to be distorted and made public," Dujarric said.
When asked if Guterres will express a protest to the US, the spokesman noted that the UN does not disclose contents of Secretary General’s private phone conversations with various member states.
"The Secretary General was not soft on any one country and. On the conflict in Ukraine - he has been very clear about the violations of international law very, clear about the violations of the [UN] Charter. He says the same thing when he's in Moscow, when he's in Kiev, when he's in New York, and that's in the open record," the spokesman said. "Our efforts, his efforts have been to mitigate the impact of the [conflict] on the world's poorest. We want to drive down price of food and the price of grain fertilizer worldwide."
"We take whatever measures we can we can take. The need to respect the inviolability of communications applies to every member state, but we take the precautions that we can take," Dujarric added.
The spokesman refrained from answering if US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield has requested a meeting with Guterres.
Earlier, BBC reported citing the leaked Pentagon documents that the US believes that the UN Secretary General treats Russia’s interests with too much understanding, including in the context of the grain deal talks. According to BBC, the leaked documents contain information from Guterres’ talks with his First Deputy Amina Mohammed. In particular, in one conversation, he "expressed concern" over European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s call for European States to increase production of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine. BBC speculates that the US could have obtained this information by spying on the UN Secretary General.