The Vice Chancellor of Osun State University, Osogbo, Prof Clement Adebooye, has said the ongoing Iran-Israel war could have been avoided for the attainment of global peace.

Adebooye spoke at a three-day International Sustainable Development Dialogue with the theme, ‘Sustainable Development in the Age of Crisis: Humanities, Science and a More Equitable World,’ organised by UNIOSUN Global Affairs and Sustainable Development Institute.

The VC, in his address at the opening session of the event obtained in Osogbo on Thursday, while noting various consequential dimensions and magnitude of the war, leading to the conspicuous humanitarian crisis, rising casualties, geopolitical instability and regional spill-over, and economic disruptions, among others, demanded dialogue to prevent further escalation.

He further said, “There is no doubt that the contemporary world is characterised by crises of different magnitude and consequences not only at the national level but also at continental and intercontinental levels. In the last week, for example, the conflict between Israel and Iran that started like a candlelight has escalated with far-reaching and severe impacts not just for the immediate region but globally.

“The various consequential dimensions and magnitude of this war are manifest in the conspicuous humanitarian crisis and rising casualties, geopolitical instability and regional spill-over, economic disruptions, nuclear proliferation concerns, and cyber warfare.

“Undoubtedly, the long-term consequences of this avoidable war will depend heavily on the duration and intensity of the hostilities, as well as the involvement of other international actors.”

In their separate submissions, Prof. Moises Silva, from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, and Dr. Feng Mao from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, declared that the use of nuclear weapons during the war would have negative impacts on the Sustainable Development Goals conservation agenda, including disruption of nature.

Silva added, “Without nature we cannot live, so this war and others that are happening are showing us the true face of people that are very greedy and they prefer war to life because every activity of war greatly on our environment.”

In his welcome address, the Director of the Institute, Prof. John Agbonifo, explained that the essence of the conference was to bring together scholars from across the world to come up with ideas towards achieving global development goals.

“When the SDGs were designed, nobody anticipated these crises, now that we have crisis at hand and it is becoming an impediment to the achievement of the sustainable goals we must find a way to achieve it before deadline in five years.

“There is a need for us to revisit the Sustainable Development Goals, especially against the contemporary context and to see what can be done to be able to achieve those goals by negotiating the conditions and terms.

“Nobody foresee that we will be embroiled in a kind of contentions and crisis that the world is currently facing ten years ago, we need to be creative and imaginative through this crisis to attain the SDG goals,” Agbonifo said.