The UN Security Council has declared its support for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Israel barred him from entering the country for not immediately condemning Iran’s missile attack against the Jewish state.
Without naming Israel, the 15-member council urged all UN member states to maintain a “productive and effective relationship” with the secretary-general and to “refrain from any actions that undermine his work.”
“The members of the Security Council affirmed their full support for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, his important role and that of the wider UN,” the statement reads, stressing that “any decision not to engage with the UN Secretary General or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions in the Middle East.”
On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared Guterres persona non grata, accusing the UN chief of failing to condemn the “abhorrent attack” conducted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the previous day.
Tehran launched around 200 missiles at Israel in response for the bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon by the Jewish state, as well as the recent killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah officials by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
After the rebuke from West Jerusalem, Guterres – who had repeatedly condemned both Israel and Hezbollah for months of cross-border attacks – condemned the Iranian missile attack, urging both sides to stop the “deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence.”
Israel had previously launched a ground attack against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The operation, coupled with intense airstrikes, is aimed at stopping cross-border rocket and mortar attacks by Hezbollah, according to the IDF.
Hostilities on Israel’s northern border began around a year ago after West Jerusalem launched an invasion into the Palestinian enclave of Gaza in retaliation for a deadly incursion into southern Israel by the militant group Hamas. Hezbollah supports the Palestinians and has vowed that it will only stop the cross-border rocket attacks when a ceasefire is reached in Gaza. Israel’s goal is to “eliminate” Hamas completely, and it has repeatedly rejected calls from the US, its main ally, for a truce.