It ended with two ambassadors trading insults across a table. “I advise the representative of the United States to be polite,” Iran’s envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, said. “It will be better for yourself and the country you represent.” Washington’s man at the UN, Mike Waltz, answered at once, accusing Iravani of speaking for “a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people.”
That rare, direct clash capped an emergency Security Council meeting on a Saturday in February, called after the United States and Israel struck Iran. Dawn described the 15-member Council as deeply divided. Nothing about the session suggested otherwise.
Guterres: a chance wasted
UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened with a warning that the alternative to de-escalation is “a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.” In his view the American and Israeli raids broke international law, the UN Charter among it. Iran’s counterattacks, he added, trampled on the sovereignty of seven neighbors: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq and Bahrain.
He had a particular regret. Technical talks had been prepared in Vienna for the following week, to be followed by new political talks. “I deeply regret that this opportunity for diplomacy has been squandered,” he said.
Two accounts of the same strikes
Waltz said the U.S. operation, named Operation Epic Fury, was meant to dismantle Iran’s missile capabilities, degrade its navy, cut the supply line to proxy militias, and make sure Tehran never obtains a nuclear weapon. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he told the chamber, calling the strikes lawful. IBTimes noted that his list left out regime change, though Trump had urged Iranians to seize control of their government once the strikes died down. Israel’s ambassador, Danny Danon, called the action pre-emptive. “We are stopping extremism before it becomes unstoppable,” he said.
Iravani told a different story. He said the strikes had “killed and injured hundreds of Iranian civilians,” and that attackers hit a school at Minab, in Hormozgan province, and more than 100 children died. He called it “a war crime and a crime against humanity.” His question to the Council was blunt: may any member state, a permanent member included, use force to settle another state’s political future?
Where the permanent members stood
Russia’s Vassily Nebenzia demanded that the United States and Israel stop at once, and his government called the strikes “armed aggression” against a sovereign UN member. China’s Fu Cong was gentler. He said Beijing was deeply concerned by “the sudden escalation of regional tensions” and urged dialogue. Any binding action would need those two to stay out of the way, and neither sounded like it would.
Pakistan, not a permanent member, picked its words with care. Its ambassador, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, condemned the “unwarranted attacks” on Iran and, in the same breath, the attacks on six Gulf and neighboring states, from Saudi Arabia to the UAE. The Arab League’s observer, Maged Abdelaziz, pointed out that Israel has refused to let the UN nuclear watchdog inspect its own nuclear facilities.
Away from the chamber, Iran’s Red Crescent Society said the strikes had hit at least 24 of the country’s 31 provinces, with 201 people dead and 747 hurt, so far. Iranian state media later confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Sources
- Russia, China condemn strikes on Iran at U.N.; US, Israel defend actions as lawful at heated Security Council meeting (IBTimes India)
- Iran accuses US, Israel of aggression, civilian killings at UN Security Council meeting (Bastille Post)
- Pakistan walks diplomatic tightrope at UN session (Dawn)
