Israel declared United Nations secretary-general António Guterres persona non grata on Wednesday, barring him from setting foot in the country because of the deep-seated anti-Israel bias he displayed after Iran attacked the Jewish state.
Guterres responded to the Iranian barrage of 181 ballistic missiles on Tuesday by vaguely condemning the “broadening of the Middle East conflict” without mentioning Iran by name.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil,” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
The U.N. chief has repeatedly called for a cease-fire amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Critical of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, Guterres has not denounced Hamas’s massacre of Israeli citizens on October 7 last year.
Katz claimed Guterres has given “backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran—the mothership of global terror,” which is why he “will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched the missile attack toward Israel in response to the Israeli killings of top terrorist leaders, including longtime Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah. Though anticipated to be deadlier than Iran’s missile-and-drone attack in April, the latest barrage left Israel’s cities largely unscathed with very few injuries reported. Many missiles were intercepted with the help of two U.S. Navy destroyers, and other projectiles struck open land.
Immediately after the initial wave of ballistic missiles, Israel vowed to retaliate.
“We are on heightened alert on defense and offensive, we will protect the citizens of Israel. This [missile] fire will have consequences,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said. “We have plans, and we will act in the time and place that we choose.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded similarly, saying Iran “made a big mistake” and promising it will “pay for” the assault. He did not provide details about a forthcoming Israeli reprisal.
Iran’s attack on Israel came a day after the IDF initiated a limited incursion into southern Lebanon to target and destroy Iranian-backed Hezbollah assets. Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have escalated in recent weeks, and global leaders are worried that a wider regional war is now very likely.
The ground offensive marks the first time in 18 years that Israeli troops entered Lebanese territory. In 2006, Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a monthlong war that killed more than 1,000 Lebanese and 150 Israelis. That conflict ended with the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which mandated an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and a joint U.N.-Lebanese force to replace Hezbollah south of the Litani River.
Israel has claimed that Hezbollah routinely violates the 2006 agreement by operating in the area between the border and the Litani River. An Israeli official told reporters on Tuesday that Hezbollah’s strongholds near the Lebanon-Israel border “pose a clear and direct threat to Israel’s civilians.”
Guterres, however, has been opposed to any military action that Israel takes in Lebanon, calling for “immediate de-escalation.” Since October 7, Hezbollah has attacked northern Israel to show solidarity with Hamas terrorists based in Gaza.
“One rash move — one miscalculation — could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination,” Guterres said in June. “Let’s be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”