At a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, Russia and China lambasted the United States for recent airstrikes on targets in Iraq and Syria, accusing Washington of raising the risk of regional escalation.
Russia requested the council meeting after the US had carried out dozens of strikes on Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria. The attacks followed a drone strike on a US base in Jordan that left three soldiers dead.
Moscow’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya argued that the US strikes were prompted by a desire to influence the domestic political landscape and bolster the “disastrous” image of President Joe Biden’s administration. Nebenzya also accused the US of attempting to drag Middle Eastern nations, including Iran, into the regional conflict.
Syria joined in the condemnation, pointing to US domestic politics as a motive for the strikes. Envoy Koussay Aldahhak declared that Damascus rejected the use of states as “a platform for US election campaigns and for displaying a brute force that undermines the principles of collective security.”
China also condemned the attacks, with Ambassador Zhang Jun expressing concern over escalating tensions.
The US purports that it does not seek to create conflicts in the Middle East or anywhere else, but in reality, it does precisely the opposite. The US military actions are undoubtedly stoking new turmoil in this region and further intensifying tensions.
Washington claimed its attacks in Iraq and Syria hit targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which for decades has maintained an “axis of resistance” to US influence in the region. Iran responded that the forces it supports in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen operate independently and played no part in the attack on the US base in northern Jordan.
The US and UK have targeted the Houthis in Yemen over the security threat to global sea routes attacked by the Houthis in order to influence the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
