Israel and Iran accused each other last night in the United Nations Security Council of being the main threat to peace in the Middle East and called on the Supreme Court to impose sanctions, Israel wants to punish Iran, and Iran wants to punish Israel.
“The masks have fallen. Iran, the world’s main sponsor of terrorism, has shown its true face as a troublemaker of the region and the world,” said Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan at an extraordinary session of the Security Council convened on his initiative after Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel.
He said that “the gloves should be taken off now”, and called on the Security Council to “act”.
He also called on the Security Council to designate the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, as a “terrorist organization” and to impose “all possible sanctions on Iran before it is too late.”
He specifically mentioned the mechanism for the rapid reintroduction of international sanctions on the members of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, from which the US withdrew in 2018. After the signing of the agreement, sanctions were lifted on Iran in exchange for an obligation not to carry out nuclear activities for military purposes.
Deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood said that members of the Security Council have a collective responsibility to ensure that Iran complies with UN resolutions and ends violations of the UN Charter. He said that in the coming days, the US will discuss with other member countries additional measures that could be applied to hold Iran accountable at the United Nations.
According to the Israeli military, Iran sent more than 300 drones, ballistic and cruise missiles into Israeli territory on the night of Saturday into Sunday, in an attack that Israel says it has largely thwarted.
Iran announced that the attack, called “Fair Promise”, was a response to the attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria on April 1, for which Israel is responsible. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was behind the attack, which killed seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, including two high-ranking commanders.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, said that the Security Council failed to fulfill its duties regarding the attack on the Iranian Consulate, and added that “under these conditions” his country had “no other choice but to exercise its right to self-defense. He said that Tehran does not want escalation but that it will respond to “any threat or aggression”.
“It is time for the Security Council to take up its responsibilities and face the real threat to peace and international security,” he said, calling on the Security Council to take “immediate punitive measures” – to force Israel to end its “genocide against the population of Gaza”.
Iran’s attack on Israel took place more than six months after the beginning of the Israeli offensive on Gaza launched after the attack of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas on Israeli territory on October 7 last year.
Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, Israel has been the “sworn enemy” of Iran, which calls for its destruction. But until now Tehran has shied away from direct attacks on Israel and the two countries have clashed through third parties such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Most members of the Security Council called for “restraint” to avoid a new escalation in the region.
“Neither the region nor the world can afford more war,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres.
“The Middle East is on the brink. The population in the region faces real danger from a general devastating conflict. Now is the moment to de-escalate, now is the moment to show maximum restraint,” Gutteres said.
“The most important thing is to avoid any action that could lead to a larger military confrontation on multiple fronts in the Middle East,” added the UN Secretary General and condemned both the Iranian attack on Israel and the attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Beta reports.
