Former UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, a Peruvian diplomat who played a crucial role in ending the Iran-Iraq war of 1980 to 1988, has died, the United Nations said in a statement on Wednesday.

Perez de Cuellar, whose life spanned a century, served as head of the international body from 1982 to 1991. 

During his time in office, he played a crucial role in securing the release of American hostages held in Lebanon as well as peace accords in Cambodia and El Salvador, the United Nations said.

According to The Guardian, his son, Francisco Perez de Cuellar, said his father died at home of natural causes. The current UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres called the Peruvian diplomat a personal inspiration.

Perez de Cuellar’s life spanned the entire history of the United Nations, Guterres said, dating back to his participation in the first meeting of the general assembly in 1946 as a junior diplomat.

When he began his tenure as in the top job in 1982, he was a little-known figure who had risen as a compromise candidate at a time when the United Nations was held in low esteem.

But once elected, he quickly made his mark and sought to revitalise the world body’s faulty peacekeeping machinery.

- Reuters