The United Nations Security Council on Thursday offered its full support to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Israel declared him "persona non grata" for not quickly condemning Iran's ballistic missile barrage.
Without naming Israel, the council's five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States — along with the 10 non-permanent members, "underscored the need for all member states to maintain a productive and effective relationship with the secretary-general."
The Council also asked member states to "refrain from any actions that undermine his work and that of his office."
"Any decision not to engage with the UN secretary-general or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions in the Middle East," it said.
Relations between the UN and Israel — a state created by a UN resolution in 1947 — have been strained since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, Guterres was declared persona non grata by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who called him an "anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists, rapists, and murderers."
"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil," Katz said in a statement.
That same day, at a tense emergency Security Council meeting on rising tensions in the Middle East, with both UN envoys from Iran and Israel present, Guterres said: "I again strongly condemn yesterday's massive missile attacks by Iran on Israel."
However, he also called on all sides to end the "sickening cycle of escalation" of violence, warning that it was leading the region "straight over the cliff."
Guterres has repeatedly called for a ceasefire to halt the fighting in both Gaza and Lebanon.
