The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterrescondemned this Wednesday unequivocally Iran’s ballistic missile launch on Israeland further noted that “they do nothing to support the cause of the Palestinian people or alleviate their suffering.”
Guterres’ words before the Security Council, meeting in an emergency to discuss the situation in Lebanonare the first ones he pronounces after Israel declared him ‘persona non grata’ hours before and prohibited him from entering the country, precisely for not having unequivocally condemned the Iranian attack the day before, according to the Hebrew Foreign Minister, Israel Katz. So far, Guterres He hasn’t said anything specific. on Israel’s declaration regarding him, nor is it likely to do so.
Guterres began his speech to the Council by lamenting that “the terrifying fire in the Middle East it’s turning into hell“, and in particular since a week ago, and also before the Council, he already warned against the escalation of violence in the region.
He recalled that the attacks by the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and those of the Israeli army violate several UN resolutions and insisted that Israel’s territorial integrity of Lebanon must be respected. He also stressed that the Lebanese Government “must have complete control of weapons in the south of the country”, in reference to Hezbollah’s arsenal.
The Secretary General listed the latest attacks and reprisals that Israel, Hezbollah and Iran have exchanged, and stressed that “each escalation has served as a pretext for the next”. “We cannot lose sight of the terrible toll that this conflict is taking on civilians, nor can we look the other way in the face of systematic violations of international humanitarian law,” said the secretary general. “This deadly cycle of give-and-take violence must end. time is running out“he warned.
In the Council session, it is not expected that any new resolution on Lebanon will be approved, since resolution 1706 of 2006 – violated a thousand times – should be enoughas the current president of the Security Council, the Swiss Pascale Baeriswyl, recalled this Tuesday.
