PNN – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres spoke at the UN Security Council meeting about the situation in the Middle East and Palestine, which angered the Israelis to the extent that they did not consider him the representative of all UN members and even demanded his resignation.
According to Pakistan News Network from New York, Coinciding with the 18th day of clashes between the Palestinian resistance groups and the Israeli regime, the UN Security Council held a meeting at the level of foreign ministers on October 24, 2023, under the rotating chairmanship of Brazil, in which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was the first speaker.
Guterres warned in this meeting: the situation in the Middle East is getting worse by the hour. The war is raging in Gaza and it threatens to spread throughout the region. It destroys divisions and differences in societies. Tension is a threat. However, the principle of respect and protection of civilians must be observed.
The Secretary General of the United Nations said: I have clearly condemned the terrible and unprecedented actions of Hamas in Israel on October 7. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, wounding and abduction of civilians or the firing of rockets. All hostages should be treated humanely and they should be released immediately and unconditionally.
But what angered the Israelis was this part of Guterres’ statement. The UN Secretary General stated: It is also important to know that Hamas attacks did not happen in a vacuum and suddenly. The Palestinian people have been subjected to suffocating occupation for 56 years. Their land has been steadily swallowed up by settlements and plagued by violence. Their economy is stifled; their people are displaced and their houses are destroyed. Their hopes for a political solution to their problems have been destroyed.
Guterres emphasized: But the discontent of the Palestinian people cannot justify the terrible attacks of Hamas. These terrible attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Wars have rules. We must ask all parties to adhere to and respect their commitments in the international framework. In carrying out military operations, be careful to protect the lives of civilians and respect hospitals and protect them from attacks on UN facilities that have sheltered more than 600,000 Palestinians.
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Tel Aviv’s anger over the statements of the UN Secretary General
Immediately after these words of Guterres about the reasons for the Hamas operation on October 7th, Eli Cohen, the foreign minister of the Israeli regime, addressed Guterres in a strong tone of speech against Guterres in the security meeting about Gaza: “Mr. Secretary General, what world do you live in? This is definitely not our world.”
Emphasizing that Israel will “win” in this war with the destruction of Hamas, the Foreign Minister of the Israeli regime said: “We are against establishing a truce with those who have sworn to kill Israelis. We were not the initiators and this war has been imposed on us.”
In a strong reaction to the UN Secretary General’s position on Gaza, Israel’s Foreign Minister said that he will not meet with Guterres in protest against the position of the UN Secretary General.
Giliad Erdan, the ambassador and representative of Israel, who was angry with these words of the UN Secretary General, claimed: He does not deserve to be the leader and Secretary General of the UN and should resign immediately. There is no point in talking to these people who sympathize with the perpetrators of crimes against “Israelis”.
Israel’s foreign minister continued: America, England, Germany and other countries support Israel and recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization.
He claimed: We never attacked children, women and civilians. We only attack Hamas positions. We protect our people against rockets, but Hamas uses people to protect its rockets.
Continuing his hostile stance against Iran, the Foreign Minister of the Israeli regime claimed: “Undoubtedly, one of the goals of the terrorist attack on Israel was to damage the peace process in our region. This attack emphasizes the fact that Israel and most of the Arab countries in the region are facing a common threat, which is Iran and its terrorist organizations. Therefore, the normalization of relations with the Arab countries will certainly take time because we are at war. But they will not be able to achieve this goal.”