UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on US-Israeli strikes against Iran

Russia and others request special session over ‘unprovoked act of armed aggression’; Tehran urges council take ‘immediate’ action, also calls for urgent IAEA meeting

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres condemned “escalation” in the Middle East after US and Israeli strikes on Iran, on which the UN Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting later Saturday.

“I call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation,” Guterres said in a statement, saying the attacks — including Iran’s retaliation — undermine international peace and security.

The secretary-general was to deliver further remarks at a Security Council meeting in New York at 4 p.m. local time.

France, China, Russia, Bahrain and Colombia each led a push for the extraordinary Saturday meeting, according to a diplomatic source.

The Russian mission to the UN said it made the request over “the unprovoked act of armed aggression by the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“During the Security Council meeting, we will demand from the United States and Israel to immediately cease their illegal and escalatory actions and embark on a path toward a political and diplomatic settlement,” it added in a statement.

In a letter to the United Nations, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called on the Security Council to take “immediate” steps to halt what it said was an illegal aggression by the United States and Israel.

Araghchi said the council must “address the US and Israeli regime’s acts of aggression” and “take the necessary and immediate measures to halt this unlawful use of force.”

“The United States and the Israeli regime shall bear full and direct responsibility for all ensuing consequences, including any escalation arising from their unlawful actions,” he added in the letter.

Iran requests emergency IAEA meeting

Also Saturday, Iran called for an emergency meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog to discuss “baseless” US and Israeli claims that Tehran’s atomic program partly justified their military action against it.

“In light of ongoing acts of aggression by the US and Israeli regimes… (Iran) called for an urgent extraordinary meeting” of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors, Iran’s mission to the Vienna-based agency said on X.

The post included an image of its formal request letter, addressed to IAEA chief Rafael Grossi.

“Baseless claims, vicious threats and wrongful acts of aggressors against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program shall be addressed by the Board immediately,” it added.

Grossi took part in the US-Iranian talks on February 17 and 26, which some observers saw as the last chances to avoid a conflict.

The UN nuclear watchdog stressed on Friday the “utmost urgency” of its request to verify all nuclear material in Iran, according to a confidential report seen by AFP.

Iran, which openly seeks Israel’s destruction, has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said before last June’s 12-day war that Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.

After long weeks of escalating regional tensions and burgeoning threats of conflict, Israel and the US launched a major joint strike on Iran on Saturday morning, with waves of attacks on sites across the Islamic Republic continuing throughout the day.

Iran vowed a crushing response to the military campaign and launched repeated missile barrages at Israel starting at around 10 a.m., sending millions into shelters repeatedly as air defenses worked to intercept the threats. The Magen David Adom ambulance service reported that it treated a total of 90 people who were lightly injured as a result of the Iranian attacks, the vast majority of them indirectly.

Iran was also reported to launch missile attacks on multiple countries hosting some of the tens of thousands of American troops deployed across the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain.