The Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Israel Katz has declared the United Nations Secretary- General, Antonio Guterres as persona non grata, banning him from entering the country.
Katz disclosed this on X Wednesday, accusing the UN Chief for not condemning Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, which he said almost every country in the world has done, saying such a person does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil.
According to him, “Today, I have declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil.
“This is a Secretary-General who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on October 7, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization.
“A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran, the mothership of global terror will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN” he said.
The Minister vowed that Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres.
UN Secretary-general on X after the Iran’s missile launched against Israel condemned the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation, adding that
this must stop. “We absolutely need a ceasefire”.
The Iranian missile launches came after Israeli ground troops launched raids into Lebanon and its warplanes bombed from the skies.
Though, so far characterised by Israel as limited, the first ground campaign into Lebanon for 18 years would pit Israeli soldiers against Hezbollah, Iran’s best-armed proxy force in the Middle East.
It marks the biggest escalation of regional warfare since fighting erupted in Gaza a year ago, and follows weeks of intense airstrikes that have decapitated Hezbollah by killing most of its top leaders. More than thousand Lebanese have been killed and a million have fled their homes.
Iran, which sponsors Hizbollah, has vowed to retaliate against Israel, raising fears that war could spill across borders throughout the region, despite efforts by the United States, Israel’s closest and most powerful ally, to contain it.
In the latest announced killing of a senior Hizbollah figure, Israel said it had assassinated Muhammad Jaafar Qasir, describing him as a commander in charge of weapons transfers from Iran and its affiliates.
The rapid escalation that has engulfed Lebanon into war has killed hundreds. Near the city of Sidon along the Mediterranean south of Beirut, mourners wept over coffins containing black-shrouded bodies of people killed in Israeli strikes.
