Israel on the Middle East - Security Council Media Stakeout | United Nations

Remarks by Ambassador Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, on the situation in the Middle East. Danon told reporters, “in one hour at 5 pm our time, a ten-day ceasefire will come into effect between Israel and Lebanon as Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed. We got to this point as a result of the IDF's heroic actions in pushing back Hezbollah in many operations, including the pager attacks and the elimination of Nasrallah.” Speaking to reporters today (16 Apr) in New York, Ambassador Danon criticized the UN Secretary-General’s “outrageous remarks” made earlier this week. Ambassador Danon said, “in the very day Israel and Lebanon were engaged in historic negotiations. He went so far as to claim that Israel and Hezbollah have, and I quote ‘helped each other to destabilize Lebanon.’ That is simply false.” The Israeli Ambassador continued, “at a historic moment, when the region is taking steps toward direct dialog between Israel and Lebanon, when others are choosing progress, the Secretary-General choose to do exactly the opposite. He chose to cast doubt. He chose to blur the truth. He chose to draw a comparison between a sovereign state and a terrorist organization. That is shameful.” Ambassador Danon asked, “on what moral ground that the Secretary-General equate a democracy defending its citizens with an Iranian backed terrorist proxy?” adding that “there is no answer to that. To put them in the same category is a complete distortion of reality.” “Secretary-General Guterres, this is shameful. Retract your comments. Correct the record. Do your job,” the Israeli Ambassador said. On the Strait of Hormuz, Ambassador Danon said that it “should concern every country in the General Assembly,” adding that “Iran is trying to choke one of the world's most important waterways and turn it into weapons. They block ships, they harass them. Then they name a price - pay and you pass, refuse and you are stopped. That is not trade. That is economic terrorism.” He continued, “after weeks of negotiations, even a stripped-down Security Council resolution was vetoed. So we have to be clear about what comes next. We need a clear resolution, strong one, one that will deal with enrich uranium, with the ballistic missiles, with the proxies. That’s what we expect from the Security Council.” Ambassador Danon also said, “there is one thing that is very troubling is that some countries choose to go behind closed doors and sign secret deals with the Iranian regime. No transparency, no accountability. It's also shameful.” Asked about the ceasefire between his country and Lebanon, the Israeli Ambassador said, “it is in our view, we will have to follow very carefully what's happening on the ground. And if we feel threatened, we will react. We are not going anywhere. We are holding our positions. we agreed for ten days holding those positions. Having a ceasefire. and we all know that, the problem is not with the Lebanese government. The problem is with Hezbollah.” He added, “we believe in direct negotiations with Lebanon, but we are aware of the complexity that you deal with the Lebanese government, but Hezbollah, they don't take orders from the Lebanese government. They take orders from Iran. We know it's complex, but we are willing to give it a try.”


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