(credit: un photo)  United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at UN world headquarters in New York

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Israel announced Wednesday it has declared UN Secretary General António Guterres persona non grata, banning him from entering the country. The Israeli government said it took the unprecedented diplomatic action against the UN chief because he “failed” to condemn Iran’s recent missile attack on Israel.  Tehran launched a barrage of some 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli military targets on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel’s ground war in Lebanon in pursuit of militant group Hezbollah. The increased tensions come after Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike Saturday in Lebanon’s capital city Beirut. 

“Today, I have declared UN Secretary-General [António Guterres] persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared in a statement posted on X. “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. A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and 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.”

Responding Iran’s attack on Israel, UN Secretary General Guterres said in a statement late Tuesday: “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation.”   Apparently,  the UN chief’s statement fell short of an outright condemnation of Iran, according to Katz.   “Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres,” Katz added.  But  during UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East on Wednesday after Israel banned Guterres from the country, Guterres did condemn Iran:   “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.”  The UN chief also took Israel to task for its deadly military action in Gaza.  “Since last October, Israel has conducted in Gaza the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years as Secretary-General.  The suffering endured by the Palestinian people in Gaza is beyond imagination,”  Guterres said.