Ambassador's Statement at UNSC: U.S. Act of Aggression against Iran's Peaceful Nuclear Facilities
Iran's Ambassador has delivered a statement before the UN Security Council during an emergency session to discuss the United States' acts of aggression against Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities. The full text of the statement is as follows:
Statement by
H.E. Mr. Amir Saeid Iravani
Ambassador and Permanent Representative
of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
Before the United Nations Security Council
Emergency Meeting
New York, 22 June 2025
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
Thank you, Madam President, for your valuable efforts in promptly convening this emergency meeting in your capacity as the President of the Security Council. We welcome the presence of the Secretary-General at this meeting.
We also listened to the statement made by ASG Mr. Miroslav Jenca. We appreciate all those members who have chosen to stand on the right side of history, and thus strongly condemned the acts of aggression of the United States and the Israeli regime against my country.
Madam President,
I address this Council today for the third time since the brutal aggressions against my Country, first by the Israeli regime on June 13, and now by the United States. I speak with utmost urgency and grave concern on behalf of our people, a peace-loving nation of nearly one hundred million people.
Madam President,
Today, another stain was recorded in the political history of the United States. After the illegitimate Israeli regime failed to do the West’s “dirty work,” Trump was forced in the early hours of Sunday, June 22, 2025, to personally carry out the most sordid part of this vile agenda.
Once again, the internationally wanted war criminal Netanyahu succeeded in hijacking U.S. foreign policy, dragging the United States into yet another costly and baseless war. America has, once more, recklessly chosen to sacrifice its own security merely to safeguard Netanyahu. Once again, the world has witnessed the blatant corruption of the U.S. political system and its leaders.
As an independent, peace-seeking nation, the Islamic Republic of Iran had repeatedly warned the warmongering U.S. regime to refrain from stumbling into this quagmire.
Even now, 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.
Throughout history, the resilient and united Iranian nation has withstood deeper wounds and faced more vicious enemies — and this time too, it will show its dignity, strength, and greatness to the world.
Over the past ten days of Israel’s barbaric assault, international bodies — including the UN Security Council, and the IAEA— have been provided with all the necessary information and warnings. Yet, they have proven once again that the so-called eight-decade-long quest to prevent war and aggression is hollow and powerless in practice.
Madam President, dear colleagues,
History will not forget these tragic days. It is profoundly heartbreaking that a peace-loving country, one of the founders of the United Nations, with over 5,000 years of culture and civilization, a responsible party to the UN Charter and the NPT and a non-nuclear weapon state has been under armed attacked by an illegitimate regime, now by its chief backer, the United States. Both possess thousands of nuclear warheads.
The United States, a permanent member of this Council, the depository of the NPT, and the only state that has ever used nuclear weapons, murdering millions in two cities has now once again resorted to illegal force, waged a war against my country, under a fabricated and absurd pretext: preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. What a bitter and tragic irony.
Madam President,
This U.S. and the Israeli regime’ aggression is a clear and flagrant breach of international law. It breaches the peremptory norm of prohibition of aggression and the very fundamental principles enshrined in the UN Charter — namely Article 2(4), which categorically prohibits the threat or use of force against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of any Member State. This illegal act also violates the Charter, the Statute of the IAEA, relevant resolutions of the Agency's General Conference, Security Council Resolutions 487 (1981) and 2231 (2015), as well as the NPT itself.
Colleagues,
While the representative of the United States continues to make baseless accusations against Iran, the international community is well aware of the well-documented and dark record of military interventions, illegal use of force against other sovereign states, and sponsorship of terrorism by the United States in the Middle East and across the world.
The facts speak for themselves: all U.S. allegations against Iran are unfounded, with no legal basis, and politically motivated.
One clear example is the horrific and cowardly assassination of Martyr Major General Qasem Soleimani (the Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an official branch of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran) and his companions.
He was cowardly and deliberately assassinated while visiting Iraq at the formal request of the Iraqi Government. This crime, carried out by the United States forces on the direct order of the then-President of the United States, who yesterday again claims the responsibility for such a heinous crime. Major General Soleimani remains a hero for our people and the nations in the region for countering terrorist groups, in particular, DAESH.
Madame President,
From its illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan to its catastrophic intervention in Libya, the United States has ignored the UN Charter, shattered entire societies, and destabilized the region for decades. The people of these countries continue to pay the price for these reckless policies.
Madam President,
Israel’s attack on June 13 and the US aerial strikes on June 21 did not occur in a vacuum. They are the direct result of the illegal and politically motivated actions of the United States and its European partners, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, as well as the biased conduct of the IAEA Director-General.
Undoubtedly, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France three permanent members of this Council, along with the Israeli regime and the IAEA General Director, will bear full responsibility for the death of innocent civilians in Iran, especially women and children, and for the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure.
Madam President,
Iran was preparing for the next round of diplomatic engagement with the United States on June 15, only for Israel to strike Iran two days before those talks could take place. In fact, Israel decided to destroy diplomacy. The so-called offer of diplomacy was nothing more than a deceitful ploy to mislead the international community.
This week, as our Foreign Minister held talks with the E3 European troika and the European Union, the United States decided to destroy that diplomacy. What conclusion can be drawn from this situation? From the perspective of Western countries, Iran must “return to the negotiating table.” But, as Iran’s Foreign Minister mentioned, “how can Iran return to something it never left, let alone”.
Madam President,
The pattern is evident. The NPT, a cornerstone of the non-proliferation regime, 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.
The selective, double-standard behavior of the IAEA Board and the Security Council, turning a blind eye to Israel’s past attack on Iraq’s Osirak reactor, its assault on Iran's nuclear sites under IAEA safeguards, and its ongoing aggression, is a moral, political, and legal disgrace. This shame will forever tarnish the credibility of these international bodies. With such blatant bias, there is no assurance that other NPT members will not face similar aggression.
Madam President,
For more than two decades, Israel, an outlaw nuclear-armed regime that refuses to join the NPT despite Security Council Resolution 487, has promoted the deceitful and false narrative that Iran is on the cusp of acquiring a nuclear weapon. While there has not been even one shred of evidence to substantiate such baseless allegations, Iran’s consistent diplomatic engagement made in good faith, leading to the JCPOA and its full compliance with the commitments therein and with UN Security Council 2231, demonstrates the very peaceful nature of its nuclear program.
Madam President,
Iran is acting within its inherent and lawful right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. We will take all measures deemed necessary at our disposal to protect our people, our sovereignty, territorial integrity, national and vital interests and our peaceful nuclear program, in accordance with international law.
Once again, I would like to remind this esteemed body of its legal and moral obligations.
If this Council and the United Nations, built to maintain international peace and security, fail to act at this decisive moment, they will forever lose their credibility and relevance.
Israel and the United States are the chief culprits for eroding the rule of law, undermining international law, the IAEA Statute, and the non-proliferation regime.
However, the silence, double standards, and complicity of international organizations and some Western countries, including France and the United Kingdom, are equally reprehensible.
The UN Security Council should immediately act under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter and redress such injustice and gross violations by:
Strongly condemning the blatant aggressions, violations and heinous crimes committed against the Islamic Republic of Iran;
Adopting effective enforcement actions against the aggressors, hold the United States and the Israeli regime fully accountable;
Place the Israeli nuclear facilities under Agency safeguards,
This is a historic test for this Council, for the United Nations as a whole. Every State and every responsible actor must rise to this occasion and condemn, without ambiguity, these blatant crimes. Failure to do so will lead to the gradual decline of the very aspiration of the non-proliferation regime and normalize a dangerous precedent where might overrides right and where the fundamental principles of the UN Charter are trampled without consequence.
Madam President, distinguished colleagues,
We stand at a crossroads. Let this be the moment we put an end to impunity, the moment we uphold the principles on which this Council was founded.
This Council must act decisively. Silence will be complicity in these crimes.
If this Council fails to act and condemn this blatant aggression, the stain of complicity will forever remain on its conscience, as it does with Gaza.
Thank you.