2024-04-15 02:31:08
Israel and Iran accused each other this Sunday (04/14/2024) at the UN of being the main threat to peace in the Middle East, each urging the Security Council to impose sanctions once morest their sworn enemy.
“The mask fell. Iran, the world’s main supporter of terrorism, exposed its true face as a destabilizer of the region and the world,” said Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, at the emergency meeting of the Security Council convened following Tehran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel on Saturday.
It was Iran’s direct attack once morest Israel, including more than 300 missiles and drones. Twelve people were injured, according to the Israeli government.
Erdan also urged the Council to “act” and demanded that “all possible sanctions be imposed on Iran before it is too late.”
In particular, he referred to the “snapback” mechanism that allows members of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the United States abandoned in 2018, to reimpose international sanctions once morest Tehran, withdrawn in exchange for their commitment not to carry out nuclear activities with military purposes.
“We have a collective responsibility as members of the Security Council for Iran to respect the resolutions of the Council and to cease its violations of the Charter” of the UN, underlined the US deputy ambassador, Robert Wood.
Iran claimed “right to self-defense”
Iran, for its part, justified its attack, dubbed “Honest Promise.” Iranian ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, argued that Iran “had no choice but to exercise its right to self-defense.”
Iran said its attack came in response to a deadly April 1 air offensive once morest Tehran’s consulate in Damascus, the Syrian capital, blamed on Israel.
That attack killed seven members of the Revolutionary Guard, including two senior officers, and sparked threats of retaliation from Iran. Tehran accused Israel of this fact, which neither confirmed nor denied it.
“The Security Council failed in its duty” by not condemning the April 1 attack, the Iranian ambassador stressed, stating that Iran did not want an escalation but would respond to “any threat or aggression.”
The Council “must take urgent punitive measures to force this regime to stop the genocide once morest the people of Gaza,” the Iranian diplomat added.
Guterres: “Middle East is on the brink of the abyss”
For his part, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, warned of a possible deepening of the conflict in the Middle East.
“Neither the region nor the world can afford more wars,” Guterres cried. “The Middle East is on the brink,” he told the Security Council.
“The people of the region face a real danger of widespread and devastating conflict. This is a time for de-escalation and détente. It is time to show maximum restraint,” he insisted to the parties.
Guterres once more called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The Iranian attack came more than six months following the start of the Israeli-led offensive in the Gaza Strip once morest the Iranian-backed Palestinian group Hamas.
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