(Reuters) -Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz reinforced on Sunday his decision to declare U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata over what he described as a failure to condemn Iran’s missile attack and antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct.
On Oct. 2, Katz said that he was barring Guterres from entering Israel. He posted on X on Sunday that “Guterres can continue seeking support from U.N. member states, but the decision will not change.”
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric described the initial announcement on Oct. 2 as political and “just one more attack, so to speak, on U.N. staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel.” He said the U.N. traditionally does not recognize the concept of persona non grata as applying to U.N. staff.
When asked to respond to Katz’s remarks on Sunday, a U.N. spokesperson referred to Dujarric’s earlier comments.
Dujarric also said last week that the U.N. had not received any formal communication from Israel on the matter.
On Oct. 3, the U.N. Security Council expressed its full support for Guterres, saying in a statement that “any decision not to engage with the U.N. Secretary-General or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions in the Middle East.”
When asked last week if Guterres had been made persona non grata by Israel, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters: “There was a statement made … we will evaluate the relationship. We are here at the U.N., we work with the U.N. agencies, but we were disappointed.”
Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 amid an escalation in fighting between Israel and its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. Many were intercepted in flight but some penetrated missile defenses.
Guterres condemned the missile attack and “the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation.” Earlier the same day, Israel had sent troops into southern Lebanon.
During a Security Council meeting a day later, 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.”
(Reporting by Adam Makary and Tala Ramadan and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Lisa Shumaker)
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