Iran has said that the United States decided to destroy diplomacy with its strikes on the country's nuclear programme and that the Iranian military will decide the 'timing, nature and scale of Iran's proportionate response.'
"Even though Iran reserves its full and legitimate right under international law to defend itself against this blatant US aggression and its Israeli proxy, the timing, nature, and scale of Iran's proportionate response will be decided by its armed forces," Iran's UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani said during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council hours after the US inserted itself into Israel's war against Iran by striking three nuclear sites inside the Islamic Republic.
‘We will take all measures necessary’
Iravani accused the US of having "waged a war" against the “Islamic Republic “under a fabricated and absurd pretext and blamed Israel of sabotaging diplomatic efforts. The emergency special session of the Security Council at UN Headquarters in New York on Sunday (local time) was convened under the agenda item ”threats to international peace and security.”
“We will take all measures necessary,” he told the meeting.
The US officials said on Sunday that the country's military "obliterated" Iran's main nuclear sites using 14 bunker-buster bombs, more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles and over 125 military aircraft. The strikes mark an escalation in the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict, with Israel beginning to strike Iran on June 13.
Israeli strikes on Iran have so far killed at least 950 people, wounded 3,450 others, news agency AP quoted a human rights group as saying.
Iravani also accuses Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pulling America into "another costly, baseless war" and said the actions by the US and Israel are a “flagrant breach of international law,” BBC reported. He said Israel has promoted the "deceitful and false narrative" his country was "on the cusp of acquiring a nuclear weapon".
‘The silence, double standards, and complicity’
Iravani condemned the US and Israeli strikes, as violations of international law, asserting that they resulted from "illegal and politically motivated actions" by the United States, the UK, France, and their European allies.
"The silence, double standards, and complicity of international organisations and some Western countries, including France and the UK, are equally reprehensible," he said while calling on the council to hold the US and Israel 'fully accountable.'
The ambassador also strongly criticised Israel for undermining diplomatic avenues.
"Israel decided to destroy diplomacy," he said, adding that the "so-called offer of diplomacy was nothing more than a deceitful policy to mislead the international community."