Israel on Wednesday declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ‘persona non grata’ and banned him from entering Israeli territory, accusing the veteran Portuguese politician of failing to condemn the ballistic missile attack launched by Iran 24 hours earlier in response to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
‘Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil. This is an anti-Israel Secretary-General who lends support to terrorists, rapists, and murderers,’ Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz stressed in a statement quoted by media outlets, including the New York Times. ‘Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity with or without António Guterres,’ Katz added.
Following the wave of ballistic missiles – mainly of the Shabab 3 type – launched by Iran in response to the assassination of several Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Guterres published a brief statement through his profile on the social network X in which he condemned the escalation of violence in the region, but without mentioning any specific country: neither Iran nor Israel.
‘I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire,’ Guterres wrote when the first news of the Iranian attack broke.
Guterres defends himself: ‘I did condemn Iran’s attack’
Hours after Israel issued the statement banning Guterres from Israeli territory, the UN secretary-general declared during an emergency session of the UN Security Council that he had indeed condemned Iran’s attack: ‘As I did in relation to the Iranian attack in April — and as should have been obvious yesterday in the context of the condemnation I expressed — I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attack by Iran on Israel,’ Guterres said.
‘These attacks paradoxically do nothing to support the cause of the Palestinian people or reduce their suffering,’ he added. Following his speech, representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council showed their support for the Secretary-General by condemning Israel’s statement: all of them – Russia, China, France and the UK – except the United States, whose Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield did not mention the Israeli statement and merely thanked Guterres for his speech following the attack by Iran.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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