International relations specialist Ana Isabel Xavier maintains that there are no reasons for António Guterres to abandon his position as UN Secretary General, stating that Tuesday’s statements were from “someone who watches over the human rights of those who suffer.”
“His profile, clearly humanitarian, ended up overlapping in recent days with what was his personal testimony at the Rafah border and, therefore, I believe that what we witnessed at the meeting of the United Nations Security Council was clearly a Secretary General very emotive”. and very involved in this issue, but also a Secretary General aware that the world is not black and white,” defended the researcher from the Portuguese Institute of International Relations, in statements to TSF.
At the opening of the Security Council meeting, Guterres unequivocally condemned the “unprecedented” “acts of terror” on October 7 perpetrated by Hamas in Israel, stressing that “nothing can justify the deliberate killing, attack and abduction of civilians”. However, the UN Secretary General admitted that it is “important to recognize” that the attacks by the Islamist group Hamas “did not come out of nowhere,” stressing that the Palestinian people “were subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”
These statements were frowned upon by Israel, which has already called for the “immediate” resignation of António Guterres and admitted that it will review its relations with the UN.
However, for Ana Isabel Xavier, the UN leader highlighted his “image as a great humanist.”
“It is true that on October 7 there was widespread and strong condemnation of what was the Hamas attack on Israel, but it is also true that in recent days we have realized that Israel’s response has been completely contrary to what provided by international humanitarian law. With regard to safeguarding the rights of civilians in war situations, António Guterres demonstrated what a UN Secretary General should be: someone impartial, but above all someone who looks after the human rights of those who suffer and of those who suffer and, at least, at this moment, it does not matter if they are Israelis or Palestinians,” he explained.
Ana Isabel Xavier also points out that Israeli rhetoric is yielding to the pressures of the country’s public opinion, in a context in which support for the Israeli cause is decreasing, reinforcing “the logic of victimization.”
“There is a decline in support both for Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, and for the Israeli cause itself in what could be a ground offensive that will lead to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation, which is already very serious in itself. At this time, “It is public opinion that is determining the need for Israel’s rhetoric to rise in tone so that the logic of victimization is the primary logic in international forums such as the United Nations,” he stated.
The expert considers, for all this, that António Guterres has been put to the test, stressing that his mandate will go down “in history as one of the most challenging of the secretaries general.”
“All these issues together – the Covid-19 pandemic, the unjustified aggression of the Russian federation against Ukraine and now this war between Israel and Hamas, due to its regional and global escalation – clearly mean that António Guterres’ mandates will pass to the history as one of the most challenging of the secretaries general. In any case, none of this leads to the resignation of António Guterres and his image as a great humanist, first as high commissioner for refugees and now as secretary general of the general body of the UN.”, he concludes.
Source: TSF
