Cargo vessels in the Persian Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, on March 11, 2026. (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)

In an exclusive interview with POLITICO, Guterres cited its brokerage of the Black Sea Initiative, which allowed exports of Ukrainian food and fertilizer via a humanitarian corridor from July 2022. 

“My main objective is to see if it is possible to create conditions in the Strait of Hormuz similar to what (existed) in the past,” he said, noting that the UN is in contact with key actors in the Gulf as well as the European Council. 

“Of course, it’s a different context,” he said. “It would be a different solution. But we would like to be useful and we are prepared to manage the system. We have task forces created to be able to do it. But we prefer to work directly with the US and other states.”