The UN Secretary General has praised the contribution of US President Donald Trump for "robust diplomacy" in helping to bring about the Gaza ceasefire.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, António Guterres said: "The negotiations were dragging, dragging, dragging. And then all of a sudden it happened. I think there was a large contribution of the robust diplomacy of the at the time of the president-elect of the United States.
"I feel that when we had the position of Israel still reluctant to [have] the ceasefire, just two days before it happened, and then all of a sudden, there was an acceptance."
However, he warned that Israel could be intent on annexing the West Bank and to keep Gaza in a limbo, due to feeling emboldened by its military successes against Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Mr Guterres said: "It is clear for me that Israel is not fundamentally interested in Gaza. Its fundamental interest is in the West Bank."
He said any attempted annexation would be "a total violation of international law."
Mr Guterres warned that such a move would completely undermine any revival of the Abraham Accords, which foresees the normalisation of relations between Israel and Arab states in exchange for progress on the Palestinian issue.
"That would mean that we would never have a real stable, peaceful Middle East."
President Trump has issued an executive order cancelling the sanctions - imposed by former president Joe Biden - against violent Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Yesterday, dozens of settlers rampaged through the West Bank attacking and burning Palestinian homes and villages in protest against the Gaza ceasefire.
Mr Trump also reinstated sanctions he issued during his first term against the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Mr Guterres suggested that Iran should take the "first step" in de-escalating tensions in the Middle East by pledging not to develop nuclear weapons and recognising the independence of its neighbours.
In his address to delegates, the Secretary General said global warming had become a horror film and that the world's "fossil fuel addiction" had created a Frankenstein's monster which spared nothing and no-one.
He warned financial institutions and industries back-tracking on climate commitments that they were on the wrong side of history and science.
He said 13 of the world’s biggest ports for oil supertankers would be overwhelmed by rising sea levels, which were caused by rising temperatures.
Mr Guterrres told the audience: "2024 is likely to be the first calendar year that's pushed back past 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
"Breaching these limits does not mean the long term goal of keeping the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees is shot. It means we need to fight even harder to get on track, especially when we are seeing …sea level rise, heat waves, floods, storms, droughts and wildfires."
He envisaged a world where "every economy feels the pain of supply chains severed, of infrastructure destroyed, higher prices and higher insurance premiums or no insurance at all."
Mr Guterres did not comment on President Trump's order to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate agreement.
