Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has barred UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country, accusing him of bias against Israel.
Katz declared Guterres “persona non grata” following what he described as the UN chief’s failure to specifically condemn Iran’s recent missile attack on Israel.
Guterres issued a brief statement on Tuesday in which he condemned the conflict “with escalation after escalation” and referred to “the latest attacks in the Middle East.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil,” Katz said, calling Guterres “an anti-Israel secretary-general.”
Katz accused Guterres of supporting groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, which he called the “mothership of global terror.”
The decision has further deepened the rift between Israel and the United Nations.
Iran launched a salvo of about 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli military targets, its largest ever such attack, sending sirens blaring across Israel and activating the country’s sophisticated defensive systems.
Iran’s leadership said the attack was intended as a warning to Israel not to enter a direct war with its longtime enemy, and any Israeli response to the barrage would be met with “stronger and more painful” blows.
The escalation came about 24 hours after Israel launched a ground war in Lebanon to go after Hezbollah, a powerful militant group that is backed by Iran, and days after Israel killed its leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on Beirut.
