Israel’s Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, and the country’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Gilad Erdan, harshly criticized this Wednesday (6) the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, for his decision to invoke a rare clause in the organization’s charter to request Security Council intervention in the ongoing conflict between the Jewish State and Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN charter, which states that “the Secretary-General may draw the attention of the Security Council to any matter which, in his opinion, may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.” It is the first time that the UN representative has used the article since taking office in 2017, and the first time that any secretary-general has used it since 1989. Through a letter published on social media, the Portuguese urged the Council Security Council to decide on a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the Palestinian enclave.
Cohen stated that Guterres’ decision “constitutes support for the Hamas terrorist organization and an endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the kidnapping of babies and the rape of women.” He added that “anyone who supports world peace must support the liberation of Gaza from Hamas.”
Erdan accused Guterres of “reaching a new moral low point” and said that “the secretary-general’s call for a ceasefire is actually a call to maintain Hamas’ reign of terror in Gaza.” He called on Guterres to “immediately resign,” claiming that the UN needs a “secretary-general who supports the war on terror,” not one who “acts according to the script written by Hamas.”
Israel has strongly criticized the UN for its decisions on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. This Tuesday (5), the Jewish State canceled the visa of Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, accusing her of failing to condemn the Hamas terrorist attacks, which took place against Israel on October 7. Such attacks resulted in around 1,200 people killed in Israeli territory.
#Israel #accuses #Guterres #supporting #Hamas #terrorism #invokes #Article #charter