UN opposes 'extrajudicial execution', urges de-escalation of Middle East conflict: deputy spokesman

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UN opposes 'extrajudicial execution', urges de-escalation of Middle East conflict: deputy spokesman

2026-03-19 18:28 Last Updated At：03-20 14:48

The United Nations (UN) is opposed to anything that "could constitute extrajudicial execution" and urged all relevant parties to avoid further escalation of the Middle East conflict, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a press conference in New York City on Wednesday.

Haq was responding to a media query about the killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, in Israeli attacks earlier this week.

The assassinations of Khatib and Iran's top security official Larijani were confirmed by the Iranian government on Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively.

Haq also briefed the press about Guterres' ongoing visit to Brussels, during which the Secretary-General will hold meetings with European Union (EU) leaders on UN-EU ties and global hotspot issues, such as the conflict in the Middle East and the Ukraine crisis.

"The Secretary-General arrived in Brussels earlier this morning for a series of meetings, including with European Union officials. He met earlier this afternoon with Maxime Prevot, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Development Cooperation of Belgium. The Secretary-General then began his meetings with European Union officials, starting with Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament. The Secretary-General and the president discussed the partnership between the United Nations and the European Union. They also discussed a number of crises around the world, including the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine," said Haq.

"The Secretary-General will travel to the seat of the European Commission for discussions with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. And later, the Secretary-General will meet with Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, and also have a working dinner with Mr. Costa," he said.

On the killing of a string of senior Iranian officials, Haq expressed the UN's opposition to illegal military strikes and repeated its call for a de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

"First of all, as a point of principle, the United Nations is opposed to anything that could constitute extrajudicial execution, and that's true in all such cases, But beyond that, we do not believe that there is a military solution to this problem and we reiterate our call to Israel, to the United States, to Iran, and to any other parties to avoid any further escalation of this conflict," he said.

China launches Shenzhou-23 manned spaceship

China's Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country's northwest on Sunday, sending three astronauts to its orbiting space station.

The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, lifted off from the launch site at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT).

The crew members consist of mission commander Zhu Yangzhu, and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In another notable first, one of the crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

After entering orbit, the Shenzhou-23 spaceship will perform a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the radial port of the space station core module Tianhe, forming a combination of three modules and three spacecraft.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.