PSD Vice President Paulo Rangel defended this Wednesday that the clarification of the Secretary General of the United Nations regarding the statements he made on Tuesday on the Israeli-Hamas conflict resolved the controversy, but believed that in fact there was a phrase “less cheerful”.
“The clarification from the Secretary General of the United Nations, our compatriot António Guterres, is an important clarification. In fact, a controversy has arisen in the international press because of yesterday’s statements [terça-feira]In any case, they were not happy, especially not one sentence,” Paulo Rangel insisted, speaking to journalists from the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels.
The Social Democratic vice-president said he was “absolutely certain” that António Guterres “did not want to justify terrorism under any circumstances”.
“But it is true that there is a less cheerful phrase, which implies a clarification. A Secretary General of the United Nations, in order to fulfill his role properly, must often maintain this neutrality,” he added.
Paulo Rangel said he hopes that António Guterres “maintains the capacity for dialogue with those involved – and in particular with those responsible for Palestine on the one hand, and the rulers of Israel on the other – and that this capital is recovered after clarification” from the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN).
At issue are statements made in English by António Guterres on Tuesday at the opening of a UN Security Council meeting, in which he considered it “important to also recognize that the Hamas attacks did not take place in a vacuum”, adding adding that “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
The UN Secretary General argued that “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify Hamas’ terrible attacks,” just as “these terrible attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
At the beginning of his speech, António Guterres said that he “unequivocally condemns Hamas’s heinous and unprecedented acts of terror in Israel” and that “nothing can justify the deliberate killing, wounding and kidnapping of civilians – or the launching of rockets against civilians.” goals.”
In response to these statements, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accused António Guterres at the same meeting of being out of touch with reality and showing understanding for the Hamas attack on October 7 with a “shocking speech”.
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Regarding this decision, the PSD vice-president argued that the phrase “less fortunate” is “between two phrases that clearly condemn the attack, but there is no doubt that this phrase is open to misinterpretation.”
“That’s why you came at this first moment to clarify: [Guterres] he was in a less comfortable position than before. I’m not saying he was weakened, but that he had less ability to intervene,” Paulo Rangel noted.
Source: DN
