Secretary-General on 2 March 2012. His Chief of Staff is Edmond Mulet of Guatemala. The appointments were part of Ban's commitment to replace top positions in his group for his second term.
Key issues
Since beginning his second term in January 2012, Ban has focused his public statements and speeches on peace and equality in the Middle East and on equality issues.
Middle East
The aftermath of the Libyan Civil War and other events of the Arab Spring continued to command Ban's attention with the start of his second term. He focused in 2012 on what he termed "intolerance" in the Arab world.
After travelling to Vienna to participate in the opening of the KAICIID Dialogue Centre to foster interreligious dialogue, Ban commented, "Many countries in the Arab world including Saudi Arabia are changing. Since the Arab Spring, the leaders have begun to listen to the voice of their people." He was however criticised in the Austrian press for associating himself with a project of Saudi King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia being a location of perceived religious intolerance.
Throughout 2012, Ban expressed his concern about the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in particular the condition of the Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli prisons and the movement restrictions imposed on Gaza Strip residents.
On 30 August 2012 Ban criticized the Iranian leadership due to their statements regarding Israel's destruction and denying the Holocaust.
On 16 August 2013, Ban Ki-moon admitted that the UN was biased against Israel, stating in a meeting with Israeli students that there was a biased attitude towards the Israeli people and Israeli government at the UN. He described this as "an unfortunate situation."
A few days later, he backtracked on the utterance.
During an interview on 16 December 2016, Ban said that the UN has issued a "disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel."
On 26 January 2016, Ban made a statement in relation to the attacks by Palestinians against Israelis. Ban Ki-moon said that "as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism".
In rebuking Ban's statement, the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu stated that "there is no justification for terror".
Ban has criticized Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen,[98] saying: "Grave violations against children increased dramatically as a result of the escalating conflict".
In June 2016, Ban Ki-moon removed a Saudi-led coalition from a list of children's rights violators.
He later admitted that Saudi Arabia threatened to cut Palestinian aid and funds to other UN programs if coalition was not removed from blacklist for killing children in Yemen. According to one source, there was also a threat of "clerics in Riyadh meeting to issue a fatwa against the UN, declaring it anti-Muslim, which would mean no contacts of OIC members, no relations, contributions, support, to any UN projects, programs".
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