Israel declares UN Chief Guterres persona non Grata over Iran attack Stance

English , International - بین الاقوامی , / Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024

Download this post as PDF

RKI Web Desk!
Israel has officially barred United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country, following his failure to condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel. The decision was announced by Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday. “I have declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country,” Katz stated.
This move comes after Guterres refrained from explicitly condemning Iran’s missile barrage on Tuesday, which Tehran claimed was in retaliation for the assassinations of senior figures from Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Israel has also criticized the UN chief for not labeling Hamas as a “terrorist organization.”
The exclusion of Guterres follows a broader pattern, as Israel has barred several other UN officials in recent months. These include Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Palestinians, who has been accused of bias toward the Palestinian cause, and the head of the UN humanitarian office in the occupied Palestinian territories, whose visa was not renewed after a report accusing Israel of rights violations against Palestinian children.
Israel has also questioned the credibility of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, amid growing regional tensions. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, ongoing for nearly a year, has resulted in over 41,600 deaths, primarily of women and children, in retaliation for a Hamas attack last October. The conflict has spilled over into Lebanon, where Israeli strikes have claimed over 1,000 lives and injured thousands more since late September.