Important Takeaways:
- The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met on Wednesday following Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel, but overshadowing the meeting was Israel’s announcement that it had banned the U.N. secretary-general due to his failure to condemn Iran.
- “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said about the decision to declare U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as persona non grata.
- “This is an anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists, rapists and murderers,” Katz argued. “Guterres will be remembered as a stain on the history of the U.N. for generations to come.”
- Guterres on Tuesday issued a brief statement following Iran’s attack, calling it the “latest attacks in the Middle East” and broadly condemned the conflict as “escalation after escalation.”
- He also slammed Israel for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank, claiming that Israel has “conducted in Gaza the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years.”
- “The suffering endured by the Palestinian people in Gaza is beyond imagination,” Guterres said. “At the same time, the situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continues to deteriorate, with Israeli military operations.”
- “This is a secretary-general who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on Oct. 7 and has not led any resolutions to declare them a terrorist organization,” Katz continued.
- “Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.”
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