Members of the UNSC rallied to the support of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday after Israel declared him 'persona non grata', barring him from that country and the occupied territories.
The Security Council President, Pascale Baeriswyl, who happens to be Switzerland's permanent representative, said her country "reiterates its full support for the work of the Secretary-General".
That sentiment was voiced by all the countries on the Council at the emergency session on the Middle East-except the United States, whose permanent representative ignored it in her address.
Algeria's Permanent Representative Amar Bendjama said: "Israel has committed an outrage against the entire UN and the international community."
Japan's Permanent Representative Yamazaki Kazuyuki thanked "Guterres for his sobering and important briefing today."
Declaring Guterres persona non grata, the foreign minister of Israel, Israel Katz said, "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."
But Guterres has condemned Iran's attacks on Israel and he told the Council, "I again strongly condemn yesterday's (Tuesday) massive missile attack by Iran on Israel".
His Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric labeled the action of Israel as "political".
Speaking to the Council, the UN chief sounded a warning that "the raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno."
"It is high time to stop the sickening cycle of escalation after escalation that is leading the people of the Middle East straight over the cliff," he said. "Each escalation has served as a pretext for the next.
In this connection, when mentioning attacks and counterviolence in the region - the conflict between Hamas and Israel, the strikes of the Israelis on the leadership of Hezbollah and on Iran, as well as the offensive of Hezbollah to Israel, the missile attack of Tehran on Israel, the aggravating situation in the West Bank, and a terrorist attack in Jaffa - Guterres said, "This deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop.
It came a day after Iran launched a barrage of missiles rained onto Israel on Tuesday and Israel's ground incursion into Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah, an Iran-affiliated group controlling swaths of Southern Lebanon.
Israel's Permanent Representative Danny Dannon branded the missile attacks "cold-blooded" and said, "These scenes have not been witnessed since the Blitz in London" when Germany attacked Britain during World War II.
Iran's Permanent Representative Amir Saied Iravani justified the action saying it was in self-defense and a "proportionate response to Israel's continued terrorist aggressive acts over the past two months."
Al-Sayyid Hadi Hashim, charge d'affaires of the Lebanese UN Mission, described his country's plight when he said it was today caught between the hammer of the Israeli destruction machine and the ambitions of some in the region. A reference to Iran-backed Hezbollah that uses Lebanon to attack Israel.
The US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield asked the Council to unanimously condemn Iran for its unprovoked attack.
She also demanded that "severe consequences" come to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian republic's primary military entity with an international presence.
"We strongly warn against Iran - or its proxies - taking actions against the United States, or further actions against Israel," she said.
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