GENEVA (Reuters) — The UN chief has told member states that the organization is at risk of “imminent financial collapse,” citing unpaid fees and a budget rule that forces the global body to return unspent money, a letter seen by Reuters on Friday showed.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly spoken about the organization’s worsening liquidity crisis, but this is his starkest warning yet, and it comes as its main contributor, the United States, is retreating from multilateralism on numerous fronts.

“The crisis is deepening, threatening program delivery and risking financial collapse. And the situation will deteriorate further in the near future,” Guterres wrote in a letter to ambassadors dated January 28.

The US has slashed voluntary funding to UN agencies and refused to make mandatory payments to its regular and peacekeeping budgets.

US President Donald Trump has described the UN as having “great potential” but said it is not fulfilling that, and he has launched a Board of Peace,........

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