Israel’s foreign minister said that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was not fit to head the global body, saying he had not done enough to condemn militant group Hamas and was too close to Iran, writes Reuters.
His comments, made at a press conference inside the U.N. building in Geneva, represent an intensification of Israel’s criticism of the U.N. in the same week that the latter mourned the killing of more than 100 of its staff in Gaza.
“Guterres does not deserve to be the head of the United Nations”, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said.
Cohen was meeting in Geneva with the World Health Organization and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) alongside families of Israeli hostages.
“I think that Guterres like all the free nations should say clearly and loudly: free Gaza from Hamas. Everyone said Hamas is worse than ISIS. Why can he not say it?” he said.
A spokesperson for the United Nations in New York did not immediately provide a comment. Guterres has previously said there was something “wrong” with Israel’s military operation which has killed more than 11,000 so far in retaliation for attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7 which killed 1,200 people. A further 240 people were seized from Israel, including infants, the injured and the elderly. Cohen, who met with ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric earlier on Tuesday, said he expected the neutral body to do more to gain access to the hostages.