TEL AVIV, October 24. /TASS/. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said that he will refuse to meet with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres from now on in the light of the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"I will not meet with the UN Secretary-General. After the October 7th massacre, there is no place for a balanced approach. Hamas must be erased off the face of the planet!" the foreign minister said on his X page.

He published this statement immediately after his speech at the open debate in the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, during which he expressed his opinion that there is no more space for ambiguity in the situation regarding Israel’s standoff with Hamas radicals, and that the entire world must take the Israeli side. Otherwise, the UN will face "the darkest of time," he said, addressing Guterres directly.