Israel has no plans to change the decision to declare UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres persona non grata.
As Day.Az reports with reference to Gazeta.ru, he wrote about this on the social network, the X head of the country’s Foreign Ministry, Israel Katz.
According to the diplomat, his decision was made after Guterres did not condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel. After conducting a survey among the population, it turned out that 87% of Israelis support this step.
“Guterres can continue to try to collect signatures in his support from UN members, the decision will not be changed,” Katz said.
The Israel Hayom newspaper noted in connection with Katz’s decision that this is the first time that any country has recognized the UN Secretary General as an undesirable person. Katz also emphasized that Guterres did not condemn the attack by Hamas militants on the Israeli border areas in early October 2023. According to the minister, after that attack the UN should declare Hamas a terrorist organization, but has not yet done so. Katz promised that Israel would continue to “defend its citizens, its status and its honor with or without Guterres.” Israel’s permanent representative to the UN, Dani Danon, tried to cool the tension between Katz and Guterres: the diplomat has known the secretary general for a long time, but in the end nothing came of his efforts.