United Nations, UN, Secretary General António Guterres said on Wednesday he needed to “set the record straight” about remarks he made a day earlier that incensed Israel and led to calls for his resignation.
At the UN headquarters in New York, he declared, “I am shocked by the misrepresentations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council, as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas.”
This is untrue. In a brief speech, he stated, “It was the exact opposite.
Declaring that “nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets,” Guterres said he had denounced the Hamas attack on Israel.
The UN chief claimed that while discussing the complaints of the Palestinian people, he made it clear that these grievances did not excuse the horrific attacks carried out by Hamas.
Guterres declared he desired to “set the record straight, especially out of respect for the victims and their families”.
After Guterres criticized Israel for its unrelenting bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip following the Hamas massacres, tensions erupted on Tuesday.
He referred to them as “collective punishment” of Palestinians and “clear violations of international humanitarian law.”
He condemned the attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7, pointing out that the Palestinians have been living under a “suffocating occupation” for many years and that the attacks were not “in a vacuum.”
The UN ambassador for Israel moved swiftly, calling on Guterres to step down and accusing him of supporting terrorism.
However, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, secretary-general of the Arab League, criticized Israel for criticizing Guterres.
The League referred to the Israeli stance as “an attempt of moral and political blackmail” in a statement released on Wednesday.
Before leaving for his return to Cairo, Aboul-Gheit made these comments during a UN Security Council ,UNSC, meeting in New York that focused on the recent events in Gaza.
He emphasized that in keeping with his duties as the head of the UN, Guterres took a morally sound and principled stand in his speech to the UNSC.
“At a critical moment like this, the principles must be unequivocal, especially in safeguarding the lives and livelihoods of civilians,” as stated by Guterres, was something he agreed with.
The “disgraceful attack” against Guterres, the pan-Arab body chair continued, aims to “silence any voice that articulates the glaring truth.”
On Tuesday, the UN chief highlighted that “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.
“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence.”
Aboul-Gheit called upon all parties to rally behind Guterres in the face of the “unjust aggression from Israel”, which “aimed to silence his voice and subject him to blackmail”.
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