The UN spokesman confirmed on Thursday that Venezuela’s UN ambassador, Rafael Ramirez, had apologized to Israel’s envoy Danny Danon over remarks suggesting that Israel was seeking a “final solution” for the Palestinians.

Ramirez, a former foreign minister, told senior UN official Edmond Mulet during a meeting on Wednesday that he regretted the “language” that he used, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, according to the AFP news agency.

Israel’s UN mission said in a statement on Wednesday that Ramirez had called Danon last weekend to offer the apology for what Danon had called “blunt anti-Semitic statements” toward “the Jewish nation”.

In his conversation with Mulet, who is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff, Ramirez had said he “personally apologized” to Danon, said Dujarric.

Ramirez stressed that “he stands against any form of anti-Semitism and fully respects the millions of victims of the Holocaust,” Dujarric added.

At a Security Council meeting last Friday, Ramirez said council members should ask themselves: “What does Israel plan to do with the Palestinians? Will they be disappeared? Is Israel trying to impose a ‘final solution’ on the Palestinians in the West Bank?”

The comparison, drawing a link between Israel and Nazi Germany, drew immediate outrage from Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

“The ambassador’s statements are a continuation of the Palestinian representative’s statements which equated Israel to the Nazis only a few days ago,” Danon said in response. “The Palestinians are bringing anti-Semitism to the UN and are bringing the language of racism to the world parliament.”

Last month, the Palestinian Authority representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, drew a parallel between the Jewish resistance fighters during the Holocaust and the Muslim terrorist perpetrators of recent attacks in Israel.