BEIJING: The UN Security Council met on Sunday to discuss U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program.” The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the U.S. had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution. China and Russia condemned the U.S. strikes.
The U.S. move seriously violates the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and international law, as well as Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, said Fu Cong, China’s permanent representative to the UN.
“In the context of the abrupt escalation of tensions in the Middle East, China is deeply concerned about the risk of the situation getting out of control. The parties to the conflict, Israel in particular, should immediately cease fire to prevent a spiraling escalation and to resolutely avoid the spillover of the war,” he said. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, recalled former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell making the case at the UN Security Council in 2003 that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of the country’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
“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. This cements our conviction that history has taught our U.S. colleagues nothing,” he said.
Nebenzia’s remarks were a rebuff to acting U.S. Representative to the United Nations Dorothy Shea, who told the council the time had come for Washington to act decisively.
Iran requested the UN Security Council meeting on Sunday.
Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani accused Israel and the U.S. of destroying diplomacy and said all U.S. allegations are unfounded and that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty “has been manipulated 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,” Iravani told the council. –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
