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Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz yesterday reinforced his decision to declare UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres persona non grata over what he described as a failure to condemn Iran’s missile attack and antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct.
On October 2, Katz said that he was barring Guterres from entering Israel. He posted on X yesterday that ‘Guterres can continue seeking support from UN member states, but the decision will not change’.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric described the initial announcement on October 2 as political and ‘just one more attack, so to speak, on UN staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel’. He said the UN traditionally does not recognise the concept of persona non grata as applying to UN staff.
When asked to respond to Katz’s remarks yesterday, a UN spokesperson referred to Dujarric’s earlier comments.
Dujarric also said last week that the UN had not received any formal communication from Israel on the matter.
On October 3, the UN Security Council expressed its full support for Guterres, saying in a statement 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.’
When asked last week if Guterres had been made persona non grata by Israel, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters: “There was a statement made ... we will evaluate the relationship. We are here at the UN, we work with the UN agencies, but we were disappointed.”
Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1 amid an escalation in fighting between Israel and its proxy in Lebanon, Hizbollah. Many were intercepted in flight but some penetrated missile defences.
Guterres condemned the missile attack and “the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation.” Earlier the same day, Israel had sent troops into southern Lebanon.
During a Security Council meeting a day later, Guterres said: “As I did in relation to the Iranian attack in April – and as should have been obvious yesterday in the context of the condemnation I expressed – I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attack by Iran on Israel.”
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