Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR at a Press Conference after 66th session of Excom. 9 October 2015. UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
UN Secretary-General condemns Iran for escalating crisis
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned Iran over October 2 launching of some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel the previous day.
His position was apparently a follow-up to an earlier denounciation of the “escalation after escalation” of the crisis by Tehran.
The statement by the UN is said to have, however, prompted the Israeli government to bar Guterres from entering Israel. “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,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on X on October 2.
In his subsequent address to the UN Security Council, 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.
” However, Guterres went on to emphasize that his condemnation was rooted in his concern for Palestinian aspirations, declaring: “These attacks paradoxically do not seem to support the cause of the Palestinian people, or reduce their suffering.”
During the same UN session, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield described the latest developments as an “escalation by Iran.”
Tehran’s conduct is “indefensible and it is unacceptable,” she added. “[W]e have a collective responsibility, as members of the Security Council, to impose additional sanctions on the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] for supporting terrorism, and for flouting so many of this Council’s resolutions.”