US, Iran clash at UN over nuclear site strikes as tensions escalate
Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The US and Iran exchanged sharp accusations at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on June 23, following US military strikes on three of Iran’s major nuclear facilities, an operation that has drawn global attention and concern over the potential for broader conflict. Addressing the Council a day after US President Donald Trump confirmed American forces struck the Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan nuclear sites, acting US Ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Camille Shea, said that the strikes were aimed at dismantling Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and ending the nuclear threat posed by what she called the “world’s foremost state sponsor of terror”.
“This operation sought to eliminate a longstanding but rapidly escalating source of global insecurity and to aid our ally Israel in our inherent right of collective self-defence consistent with the UN Charter,” she added.
Shea accused Iran of long obstructing transparency in its nuclear activities, saying it has “stonewalled good-faith efforts” in recent negotiations. “For 40 years, the Iranian Government has called for ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ and posed a constant menace to the peace and security of its neighbours, the US, and the entire world,” she added. Shea warned Tehran against further escalation, saying, “As President Trump said, any Iranian attack — direct or indirect — against Americans or American bases will be met with devastating retaliation.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani condemned the strikes as a “blatant crime” and accused the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging Trump into a conflict that began on June 13 with an Israeli assault on Iranian nuclear sites and scientists. “The US decided to destroy diplomacy,” Iravani said, adding that Iran’s armed forces would determine the “timing, nature and scale” of a proportionate response.
Blaming the Israeli Prime Minister directly, he said, “The internationally wanted war criminal Netanyahu succeeded in hijacking US foreign policy, dragging the US into yet another costly, baseless war.” He called the strikes “profoundly heartbreaking,” stating, “Today, another stain was recorded in the political history of the US.”
He reminded the Council that the US, a founding member of the UN and signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), had once again resorted to the use of force despite being the only country to have used nuclear weapons in conflict.
Iravani also targeted Israel, calling it “an outlaw nuclear-armed regime that refused to join the NPT” and has for decades promoted a “false narrative” about Iran’s nuclear intentions without providing “a shred of evidence”.
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