United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday reiterated his urgent call for an end to violence and a diplomatic resolution in the Middle East shortly after Israel‘s foreign minister declared that the U.N. chief was barred from entering the country, a move that drew international condemnation.

„The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno,“ Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, denouncing Israel‘s „relentless airstrikes across Lebanon,“ devastation of the Gaza Strip, and obstruction of a cease-fire agreement that could pull the region back from the brink of all-out war.