Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
The United Nations on Friday added Israel and Russia to a U.N. blacklist of countries suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict zones, a move that prompted Israel’s foreign ministry to say it would sever all ties with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Guterres’ annual report to the U.N. Security Council on conflict-related sexual violence, opens new tab goes a step further than last year, when he put Israel and Russia “on notice” that they could be added to the list of parties “credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence.”
The latest report does that and contains harrowing descriptions of abuses at the hands of Israeli and Russian armed and security forces.
Israel’s arch enemy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza, was already on the blacklist and in a post on X on Thursday, Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said ranking Israel with the militant group marked a “new low”.
“This is a political decision! Disconnected from the facts and reality!” Danon said in another post by the Israeli mission to the U.N. which said he was informed about it during a phone call with Guterres.
Russia’s U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report, which Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, welcomed in a post on X, opens new tab.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, posted on X that it was “ridiculous for the UN to put a democracy like Israel — with robust rule of law that conducts investigations and holds criminals accountable — on the same level as terrorist organizations like Hamas.”
