The United Nations has called on Iran and Israel to exercise restraint as the Middle East is threatened by a full-scale military conflict between the two countries, AlJazeera reports.
Secretary-General António Guterres, at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Sunday, warned opponents against further escalation of tensions in the region after mutual air attacks over the past fortnight. Iran and Israel, however, have focused on accusing each other of threatening peace. Guterres told the meeting:
Neither the region nor the world can afford more war. Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate. It’s time to step back from the brink.
Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday. The war in Gaza has sparked regular clashes between Iran’s regional allies – Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis – and Israel. The direct attack, which was in response to a strike on Iran’s embassy in Syria on 1 April, marked a major escalation.
At the meeting, Robert Wood, US deputy ambassador to the UN, called on the 15-member body to condemn Iran’s attack unequivocally. He emphasised that the UNSC has an obligation not to leave Iran’s actions unanswered and that the United States would consider additional measures to hold Iran accountable in the coming days. He said:
Let me be clear: if Iran or its proxies take actions against the United States or further action against Israel, Iran will be held responsible.
The heated words came at a meeting between Iran and Israel, whose representatives urged the council to impose sanctions on each other.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, said his country’s actions against Israel were necessary and proportionate. He noted the UNSC had “failed to fulfil its responsibilities for the maintenance of international peace and security” because it did not condemn Israel’s attack on a diplomatic mission in Syria.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told the meeting that Iran is “the number one global sponsor of terror” and a “pirate state”. He said:
The mask has come off and so the world’s complacency must also fall. The only option is to condemn Iran … and ensure that it knows that the world will no longer stand idle. This attack crossed every red line and Israel reserves the right to retaliate.
Erdan called on the UN Security Council to recognise the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite military unit, as a terrorist organisation and “impose all possible sanctions on Iran before it is too late”.
Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya called the urgent meeting of the world organisation’s Security Council on Iran’s retaliatory strike on Israel a parade of hypocrisy and double standards. He said:
What happened on the night of 14 April did not happen “in a vacuum”. Iran’s steps were a response to the UNSC’s shameful inaction on Israel’s blatant attack on Damascus, far from being the first one.
The rising tensions between Iran and Israel come amid Israel’s six-month war with the Gaza Strip, which began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing 1,140 people, mostly civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 33,729 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
