United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appeared to treat Israel unfairly and to adopt an inconsistent approach to the way he talks about Cyprus and Syria.
Over the weekend, the global body head, whose second and final term is winding down, stated that Israel is violating Syrian sovereignty, and, in a separate statement, neglected to mention that Turkey occupies large parts of Cyprus when he discussed the latter.
Guterres “continues to apply a blatant double standard toward Israel,” Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York, told JNS.
“When Israel is involved, he is quick to condemn, accuse and demand immediate action,” the envoy said. “Yet when it comes to Turkey’s decades-long occupation of Northern Cyprus, in clear contradiction to U.N. resolutions, the tone suddenly shifts.”
During a visit to Syria, Guterres wrote on July 25 that “Syria’s sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity must be fully respected.”
“Violations by Israel of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement are unacceptable and must stop,” he added.
The United Nations considers the Golan Heights, which Israel liberated from Syria in a defensive effort during the 1967 Six-Day War, to be occupied by the Jewish state.
Israel annexed the strategic mountainous area in 1981, but only Washington recognizes that designation. U.S. Donald Trump backed Israeli sovereignty over the Golan in 2019.
Israel and Syria signed the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement after a period of attrition following the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
It established a buffer zone, mandated prisoner exchanges and created the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, known as UNDOF, to monitor the ceasefire.
The agreement has largely held until the fall in late 2024 of the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad, which led Israel to take up positions beyond the buffer zone to counter the resulting instability and the rise to power of new Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa.
At the time, the new leader was designated a terrorist by the United States and United Nations.
Guterres decried Israel’s “occupation” in Syria over the weekend but did not, in a separate statement, mention Turkey’s 52-year occupation of northern Cyprus, which has been the subject of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and a U.N. peacekeeping force mandate.
“I have just landed in Cyprus to express my commitment to support for Cypriot communities in the search for a comprehensive and sustainable settlement of the Cyprus issue,” Guterres stated on July 27.
“The U.N. cannot impose peace,” he said. “Only Cypriots, through their leaders, can build it.”
Guterres made no mention of Turkey, and he didn’t say what he meant by the “Cyprus issue.”
Turkey has maintained a long presence on the island, beginning amid internal conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. That led to what some experts say was Turkish ethnic cleansing of Greek Cypriots from the north.
Jonathan Conricus is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the first Israeli military officer to provide military and strategic analysis for U.N. peacekeeping forces.
“This kind of tweet and this kind of framing and narrative by the secretary-general is not surprising at all,” he told JNS. “It is indicative of this systemic bias against Israel, which has permeated almost all parts” of the United Nations.
“Firm demands are replaced with vague calls for cooperation and reconciliation, and Turkey’s name is omitted from official statements,” Danon told JNS. “Israel expects the secretary-general to demonstrate the same integrity and fairness toward all nations.”
“As long as Israel continues to be judged by a different set of standards, confidence in the United Nations and its institutions will continue to erode,” the Israeli envoy told JNS.
JNS asked Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Guterres at a U.N. press conference on Monday, how his boss could rationalize speaking of two U.N.-termed occupied regions and “occupiers” in such apparently different ways.
“It would take hours, possibly days, for me to explain to you fully the differences between the situation in Cyprus and the situation in the Golan Heights,” Haq told JNS.
The positions Guterres “articulated are consistent with the policies that the U.N. has had, basically, for the past 50 years in each of those cases,” he said.
Haq referred JNS “to the relevant Security Council resolutions” and to “the relevant meetings that happened in the United Nations in the 1970s during each of those crises.”
“Each one has its own dynamic,” he said.
The so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, established in 1983, is illegal according to U.N. Security Council Resolutions, which have also called for respect of the island’s sovereignty.
JNS asked why Guterres omitted mention of Turkey altogether.
Guterres “has frequently mentioned all the various parties involved in Cyprus,” Haq said. “He does that when it’s helpful to do those.”
Conricus told JNS that Guterres “doesn’t apply similar standards at all when it comes to conflict resolution that is related to Israel and with other active conflicts in the area.”
“Guterres shows himself to be a complete stooge and an absolute failure in upholding the U.N. charter and to provide any type of global leadership,” he said. “It’s a very sad state for the U.N.”
Guterres, who has a long history of denouncing the Jewish state, is persona non grata in Israel, where his relationship with Jerusalem began a downward spiral after he appeared to justify the Oct. 7 attacks.
