Israel bars UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from entering the country

Tel Aviv: Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said that United Nations Secretary General António Guterres is not welcome in Israel for failing to ‘unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel’, reports say.

Tel Aviv’s response to UN secretary general comes after Iran fired at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday.

Iran’s move has given rise to fears that region could plunge into an all-out war involving several countries.

Iran was responding to Israeli troops’ ground raiding into Lebanon.

Israel Katz reportedly said: ‘I have declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata [person who is not welcome] in Israel and banned him from entering the country’.

Adding further Katz said that those who cannot ‘unequivocally condemn’ Iran’s attack on Israel do not ‘deserve to step foot on Israeli soil’.

However, Guterres in his post on X condemned the ‘broadening’ of the conflict in Middle East following Iran’s missile attack but did not name Iran or Israel , while calling for ceasefire.

Katz accuse Guterres of maintaining ‘anti-Israel policy since the beginning of the war’.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps called the missile attack a response to killing of its commander Abbas Nilforoushan and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

Israel several times previously targeted the United Nations since it started military offensive against Gaza.