Antonio Guterres wanted to respond to Israel’s anger against him on Wednesday. The UN Secretary General, strongly criticized by the Jewish State on Tuesday, said he was “shocked” by the “biased representation” of his comments on Hamas, ensuring that he did not justify the deadly attacks of the Palestinian Islamist movement. .
“I am shocked at the biased representation by some of my statement yesterday to the Security Council, as if I had justified the terrorist acts of Hamas. It’s wrong. It’s the opposite,” he told the press, while the Israeli ambassador to the UN called for his resignation.
Guterres considers it “necessary to reestablish the truth”
“As I began my remarks yesterday, I clearly said, quote: ‘I unequivocally condemned the horrific and unprecedented terrorist acts of Hamas in Israel on October 7. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, nor the firing of rockets on civilian targets. Noting that he had indeed mentioned the “grievances of the Palestinian people”, he also insisted on the fact that they “could not justify the appalling attacks of Hamas”.
“I believe it was necessary to reestablish the truth, in particular for the victims and their families,” underlined the Secretary General who also denounced on Tuesday the “clear violations of international humanitarian law” in Gaza, without mentioning Israel.
Israeli representatives, including Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, expressed their anger on Tuesday after Antonio Guterres’ comments, pointing in particular to the part of his speech where he considered that the Hamas attacks had not ” not produced outside of any context.
Israel cuts visas for ‘hostile’ UN representatives
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan on Wednesday rejected Antonio Guterres’ explanations, once again calling for his resignation. “It is a disgrace to the UN that the Secretary-General does not take back his words and is not even able to apologize for what he said yesterday. He must resign.” “Israel will send a clear message to the UN and its leaders that we will not accept the continuation of bias and hatred towards Israel on the part of this organization,” he added, assuring that the Jewish state would no longer grant visas to UN representatives “hostile” to Israel.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour defended the secretary general, denouncing the “ridiculous attacks against him”. “He is the symbol of the United Nations, he has the moral power to be the leader of the United Nations,” he insisted, welcoming his “courageous position” and his trip a few days ago to Rafah, point of passage between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, “to demand aid for the millions of besieged Palestinians”.