Israel’s strikes against Iran on Friday morning were a “calculated and necessary action” that was “carried out in response to an escalating existential threat,” Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York at the global body’s headquarters.
The Islamic Republic has a long history of funding and training terror proxies across the Middle East, but the direct threat from the regime “took a dramatic turn,” Danon said. “Iran advanced significantly toward nuclear weapons capabilities.”
Danon pointed to a secret program, which Israeli intelligence uncovered, that showed dangerous Iranian progress toward a nuclear bomb. It also revealed plans for a surprise attack on Israel in coordination with Iran’s proxies, with an invasion “from all sides, with thousands of terrorists and thousands of projectiles” going beyond an Oct. 7-style attack and incorporating “a nuclear strike,” the envoy said.
Israel “could not, and would not, wait for that moment to arrive,” he said.
He noted “an absence of meaningful international consequences” to Iran’s “repeated violations” and its “continued deception” amid a recent International Atomic Energy Agency report showing that Tehran’s nuclear program was outside the parameters of its international commitments. The report also showed that Iran obscures the details of its nuclear program.
Danon chided António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, who issued a statement earlier on Friday expressing “concern” over Israel’s operation.
“I must ask: Where was the secretary-general when Iran spent years arming itself while vowing to wipe Israel off the map?” Danon said. “Where was his voice when Iran rained hundreds of missiles and drones on our civilians?”
At Iran’s request, the U.N. Security Council is slated to meet at 3 p.m. in New York on Friday—first in an open setting and then behind closed doors to discuss Israel’s operation and its aftermath.
“We will not sit quietly while our people are targeted,” Danon said. “Not again. Not ever. Empty words will not stop Iran. Israel will.”
