Prime Minister António Costa said this Thursday that United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres expressed himself with “great humanitarian feeling” in the statements he made regarding the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Palestine. territory.
“The Portuguese government already spoke on this topic yesterday. [quarta-feira] in a clear and unequivocal manner of full support and solidarity with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who expressed himself with great humanistic feeling, in reaffirming international law and what the resolutions approved at the UN represent, of which: naturally, [Guterres] he is a press secretary,” António Costa said before entering a European Council meeting in Brussels.
The Prime Minister added that while the focus this Thursday is on rising tensions in the Middle East, “the start of a new war did not end the previous war, so continued solidarity with Ukraine must also continue.”
We are talking about statements made by António Guterres on Tuesday at the opening of a meeting of the UN Security Council in English, in which he considered “it is also important to recognize that the Hamas attacks did not come out of nowhere,” adding that “… the Palestinian people for 56 was subjected to a suffocating occupation for years.”
The UN Secretary-General stated that “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas,” just as “these horrific attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
At the beginning of his speech, António Guterres said that he “unequivocally condemns the horrific and unprecedented terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel” and that “nothing can justify the deliberate death, injury and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilians.” goals”.
In response to these statements at the same meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accused António Guterres of being out of touch with reality and showing understanding of the October 7 Hamas attack in a “shocking speech.”
On the social network X (formerly Twitter), Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called for the immediate resignation of Antonio Guterres from the post of Secretary General of this organization. Gilad Erdan also said that Israel will stop issuing visas to UN representatives.