UN Secretary-General Condemns Iran After Israel Declares Him Persona Non Grata Over Earlier Reaction

Latest Developments

UN Secretary-General António Guterres belatedly condemned Iran by name on October 2 for launching nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel the previous day, apparently updating an earlier statement that denounced “escalation after escalation” without specifying Tehran’s role. The statement prompted the Israeli government to bar Guterres from entering Israel. “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on X on October 2. In his subsequent address to the UN Security Council, Guterres said: “As I did in relation to the Iranian attack in April — and as should have been obvious yesterday in the context of the condemnation I expressed — I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attack by Iran on Israel.” However, Guterres went on to emphasize that his condemnation was rooted in his concern for Palestinian aspirations, declaring: “These attacks paradoxically do not seem to support the cause of the Palestinian people, or reduce their suffering.”

During the same UN session, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield described the latest developments as an “escalation by Iran.” Tehran’s conduct is “indefensible and it is unacceptable,” she added. “[W]e have a collective responsibility, as members of the Security Council, to impose additional sanctions on the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] for supporting terrorism, and for flouting so many of this Council’s resolutions.”

Expert Analysis

“It should not have required an Israeli rebuke for the UN secretary-general to state the obvious: Iran has once again escalated the conflict by indiscriminately firing ballistic missiles at the Jewish state. The United States and Israel should ignore António Guterres and work together to eliminate the escalating Iranian threat that the United Nations is so reluctant to identify by name.” — Tzvi Kahn, FDD Research Fellow and Senior Editor

“To borrow from Guterres’s excuse for Hamas’s October 7 massacre, Katz’s ban on Guterres ‘did not happen in a vacuum.’ The United Nations ranges from giving cover to Hamas’s atrocities to actually participating in them. Guterres’s leadership has done nothing to change the fact that the world body is an irredeemably bad actor regarding Israel.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

Related Analysis

“Israel Vows Retaliation Against Tehran Regime,” FDD Flash Brief

“Iran Escalates Multi-Front Assault on Israel as Missiles Rain on Jewish State,” FDD Flash Brief

“Netanyahu to Iranian People: ‘Israel Stands With You,’” FDD Flash Brief