Vasily Nebenzia lodged his official protest in a letter to Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, describing the incident as unacceptable that happened during his country’s rotating presidency of the Council and when an open discussion on "The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question" was being chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The text of the letter dated 31 July 2024 from Russia's UN envoy to the Secretary-General is as follows:
His Excellency
I would like to bring to your attention an inadmissible incident that took place during the second signature event of the Russian presidency of the Security Council – the open debate in connection with the item entitled “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”, held on 17 July and chaired by Mr. Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
A group of individuals invited by the Permanent Mission of Israel as “guests of the Mission” got access to the Security Council Chamber and attempted to interrupt the conduct of the meeting by shouting slogans.
Such behaviour is unacceptable. It is particularly alarming that the Permanent Mission of Israel, which was admitted to the Council meeting under rule 37, is directly involved in this incident.
Russia, in its national capacity as a member of the Security Council, kindly asks you to take necessary measures to ensure that access to the Chamber is duly restricted only to official delegates, while visitors are seated only at the balcony, in line with existing protocol, and that the missions inviting “guests” are aware of their responsibility to instruct them on the restrictions in place for Council meetings.
We would also kindly ask you to liaise with the Permanent Mission of Israel to seek an explanation for the incident and to make sure that it is not replicated in the future.
It is our intention to keep this issue in the focus of the Council’s attention as related to its working methods.
I would be grateful for the circulation of the present letter as a document of the Security Council.
AMK/IRN85560762
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