The Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, said last night that the mandate of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, represents “a danger to world peace”, after he activated article 99 of the Founding Charter to request a ceasefire in Gaza to the Security Council.
“Guterres’ mandate is a danger to world peace. His request to activate Article 99 and the call for a ceasefire in Gaza constitutes support for the terrorist organization Hamas and endorsement of the murder of the elderly, the kidnapping of babies and the rape of women,” Cohen said last night on the social account X. “Anyone who supports world peace must support the liberation of Gaza from Hamas,” he added.
It is the first time since he began his mandate in 2017 that Guterres has invoked Article 99, which states that the Secretary-General “may draw the attention of the Council to any matter that in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of peace and security in the world.” “.
The Portuguese politician made his decision “given the magnitude of the loss of human life in Israel in such a short period of time,” referring to the two months of war since Hamas attacked Israel by surprise on October 7, killing more of 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages.
Since then, more than 16,200 people have died and some 7,000 are under rubble in Gaza, completely besieged by Israeli forces and subjected to constant bombing.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, also accused Guterres yesterday of having reached “a new level of moral turpitude.”
“The secretary general’s ceasefire call is actually a call to maintain Hamas’ reign of terror in Gaza,” Erdan wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
