In a statement delivered Wednesday before the UN Security Council during an open debate on the “Protection of the Civilians”, Amir-Saeed Iravani called on the Security Council to break its silence on the United States’ threats against the Islamic Republic and systematic violations of international humanitarian law during the recent illegal war of aggression.
He expressed regret over the failure of the Security Council to discharge its responsibilities in the face of war crimes committed by the US and the Israeli regime during their unwarranted military assault against Iran.
He also blasted the aggressor regimes for deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, including an elementary school in the southern city of Minab, which resulted in the murder of more than 168 innocent students and school staff.
“The Security Council must not remain silent or indifferent to the repeated and daily basis threats made by the president of the United States against Iran, including explicit threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age,” to destroy the country’s energy, economic, and industrial infrastructure, to target Iran’s nuclear scientists and senior officials, and even rhetoric implying the destruction of an Iran’s civilization,” the envoy added.
“The normalization of such threats of force, acts of aggression, and inflammatory rhetoric by a permanent member of the Security Council sets a dangerous precedent.”
Meanwhile, Iravani said that the United States and the Israeli regime, and those who assisted and facilitated their act of aggression, must bear full legal and international responsibility for their heinous crimes against the Iranian nation.
“No state should be permitted to shield itself behind political protection while violating the (UN) Charter and targeting civilians with impunity,” he asserted.
The envoy further urged the international community to recommit to the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, including sovereign equality of states, non-use of force, peaceful settlement of disputes, and full respect for the territorial integrity and political independence of states.
Additionally, he stressed that the lawful measures undertaken by Iran during the war were in line with the nation’s legitimate right to self-defense, rejecting attempts to distort the reality on the ground as unfounded and politically motivated.
The unprovoked US-Israeli aggression on Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders.
The Iranian armed forces unleashed 100 waves of successful retaliatory strikes against sensitive and strategic American and Israeli targets throughout the region.
On April 8, forty days into the war, an Islamabad-brokered temporary ceasefire went into effect. However, the first round of Tehran-Washington negotiations failed to reach an agreement.
The US unilaterally extended the truce after its expiry, but imposed an inhumane “naval blockade” of Iran.
Tehran has refrained from committing to a second round of talks, with authorities citing Washington’s excessive demands and piracy against Iranian ships as two main impediments to concluding the war.