ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The UN Security Council on Sunday urged restraint and warned of dire consequences if tensions continue to spiral following US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites and Tehran’s threats of retaliation. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned at an emergency session of the council, calling for diplomacy to prevail and urging full access for nuclear inspectors to Iranian nuclear facilities. The meeting followed US strikes on Sunday that targeted Iran’s three main nuclear sites, including one housing the country’s most advanced centrifuges. The strikes came after Israel on June 13 began striking Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities and killing several senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. The strikes triggered a sharp backlash from Tehran. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that Washington’s attack made it clear the US is backing Israel in its war with Iran. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the strikes “outrageous” and said they “will have everlasting consequences.” Russia’s representative to the UN accused the United States of “wholesale disregard” for international law in the meeting. “None of our sensible colleagues... will believe our US colleagues anymore,” Vassily Nebenzia said. Iran’s envoy Amir-Saeid Iravani said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called a “wanted war criminal,” had hijacked US foreign policy and dragged Washington into a “costly, baseless war.” He warned that Iran’s “proportionate response” would be determined by its armed forces and told the Security Council it faced “a historic test,” warning that failure to condemn the US strike would leave a “stain of complicity.” The United States defended the operation as an act of collective self-defence alongside Israel. “The time finally came for the United States, in the defence of its ally and in the defence of our own citizens and interests, to act decisively,” its representative Dorothy Shea said, citing Trump’s earlier threat of “devastating retaliation” for any Iranian attack. Israel’s representative Gilad Erdan told the Council that Iran had been given “every possible off-ramp” and warned the world against “appeasing evil.” Miroslav Jenca, the UN’s assistant secretary-general for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas, said the Middle East “cannot afford yet another violent conflict where civilians pay the price,” urging immediate de-escalation. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi condemned the attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and warned that they could result in “radioactive releases with great consequences.” “At this time, no one, including the IAEA, is in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordow,” he added. Despite the scale of the strikes, the IAEA and Iran’s nuclear authority have reported no radiation leaks so far.
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