Middle East
Guterre’s “undesirable person” – UN: Political statement
UN Secretary General Guterres is banned from entering Israel. photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
Israel declares UN Secretary General Guterres an “undesirable person” – an unprecedented act. The United Nations rejects the allegations.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz explained the move by saying that the Portuguese had not clearly condemned Iran’s attack on Israel. After the rocket attack, Guterres announced that he condemned “the expansion of the Middle East conflict with one escalation after another,” but did not mention Iran and Israel by name. In the Security Council on Wednesday, the UN chief said that the context was obvious – and once again expressly condemned Iran’s attack.
Guterres spokesman: Process unprecedented
When asked, spokesman Dujarric rejected additional allegations that Guterres had not condemned the Hamas massacre on October 7th of the previous year: “That is wrong.” The Secretary General has repeatedly condemned the terrorist attack as well as acts of sexual violence and other atrocities.
The spokesman was not aware of any similar case in which a country had declared the UN Secretary General an “undesirable person”. “There have been times when there have been extremely tense situations between the secretary general and various member states, but I don’t remember this type of language being used,” Dujarric said.
The US government, meanwhile, criticized Israel’s move as unhelpful. “We do not consider this step to be productive in any way,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller when asked in Washington.