UN chief condemns Israel attack, says it mustn’t deter talks

The United Nations says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemns the “terrorist attack” that killed four Israeli soldiers but believes it shouldn’t be allowed to undermine the necessity of restarting restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The new U.N. chief also warns that “violence and terror will not bring a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — quite the opposite,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday.

Dujarric said Guterres stressed that those responsible for Sunday’s attack by a Palestinian who rammed his truck into a crowd of Israeli soldiers at a Jerusalem tourist spot and also injured 17 people “must be brought to justice, condemned and disavowed.”

The U.N. Security Council also condemned “the terrorist attack” in the strongest terms and called for “those responsible for this reprehensible act of terrorism to be held accountable.”