Israel’s United Nations envoy hailed the United States’ weekend strike on Iran during an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday.
“The United States, the leader of the free world, has removed the greatest existential threat to global security,” Ambassador Danny Danon told the council. “When the world stood at the edge of the abyss, America stepped forward. When time ran out, America showed courage. And when the moment came to confront the forces of extinction, America led.”
Danon blasted council members for criticizing Washington’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities while failing to take their own measures to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear threats.
“Where were you when Iran raced toward the bomb? Where were you when it enriched uranium far beyond the point of civilian use?” Danon queried. “When it buried entire fortresses beneath mountains to prepare for our extermination? Where were you when Iran turned negotiation into theater and deceit into strategy?”
He added: “You were complicit. You were afraid. You were bystanders.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres briefed the council, telling them that “The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn.”
He called upon the council to “act immediately and decisively to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program.”
Sunday’s meeting was requested by Iran, and took place as Russia, China and Pakistan circulated a resolution condemning strikes on “peaceful” nuclear sites and demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, though the resolution does not cast direct blame on the United States or Israel.
It could be voted on later this week, with Washington almost assuredly set to cast a veto.
“Again we’re being asked to believe the U.S.’s fairy tales, to once again inflict suffering on millions of people living in the Middle East,” Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, said on Sunday, recalling the case made before the council by former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell regarding Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons arsenals.
“This cements our conviction that history has taught our U.S. colleagues nothing,” Nebenzia said of Saturday morning’s strikes.
“Peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved by the use of force,” Fu Cong, China’s U.N. ambassador, told the council on Sunday. “Diplomatic means to address the Iranian nuclear issue haven’t been exhausted, and there’s still hope for a peaceful solution.”
Iran’s U.N. envoy, meanwhile, claimed Washington had turned the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which Iran has been accused by the International Atomic Energy Agency of repeatedly violating, “into a political weapon.”
“Instead of guaranteeing parties’ legitimate rights to peaceful nuclear energy, it has been exploited as a pretext for aggression and unlawful action that jeopardize the supreme interests of my country,” said Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani.
But Dorothy Shea, Washington’s acting U.N. ambassador, placed the onus on the council to act.
“This council must call upon the Iranian regime to end its 47-year effort to eradicate the state of Israel, to terminate its drive for nuclear weapons, to stop targeting American citizens and interests, and to negotiate peace in good faith for the prosperity and security of the Iranian people and all other states in the region,” she said.
She justified the Trump administration’s actions, saying that “Operation Midnight Hammer,” as it has been named, “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-defense consistent with the U.N. Charter.” Iran has for four decades “posed a constant menace to the peace and security of its neighbors, the United States and the entire world,” she added.
The United Kingdom sought a middle ground, with Ambassador Barbara Woodward telling the council that “military action alone cannot bring a durable solution to concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.”
She said London urges Tehran “to show restraint, and we urge all parties to return to the negotiating table and find a diplomatic solution which stops further escalation and brings this crisis to an end.”
But Danon claimed Iran was using negotiations as a ploy to buy more time and continue advancing its nuclear program.
“This is what the last line of defense looks like when every other line has failed,” Danon said of Saturday’s American strikes. “The cost of inaction would have been catastrophic. A nuclear Iran would have been a death sentence just as much for you as it would have been for us.”