UN Secretary General António Guterres Controversial Statements on Middle East Conflict: Federal Government’s Response and Solidarity with Israel

2023-10-25 12:03:46

The federal government has expressed its confidence in UN Secretary General António Guterres following his controversial statements on the Middle East conflict. “The UN Secretary General naturally has the trust of the federal government,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit in Berlin on Wednesday. The situation is very charged at the moment, Hebestreit added, but calls for resignation are not appropriate at the moment.

The spokesman for Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said that he “basically does not evaluate” the statements made by a Secretary General of the United Nations. At the same time, he emphasized the federal government’s solidarity with Israel: “We stand closely and unwaveringly at Israel’s side.”

At the UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Guterres once once more strongly condemned the Hamas attack on Israel. But he also said that the attacks by the radical Islamic Palestinian organization “did not occur in a vacuum.” The Palestinians have suffered from “suffocating occupation” for 56 years.

Israel’s government reacted angrily to the statement. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen attacked Guterres and accused him of living in a different world. Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan later called on the Secretary General to resign. The German-Israeli Society (DIG) called on the federal government to take a clear stand for Israel in the dispute with Guterres.

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