U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz defended the U.S.’s strikes on Iran‘s ballistic missile and nuclear programs at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday.
“Iran’s continued pursuit of advanced missile capabilities, coupled with its refusal to abandon nuclear ambitions despite diplomatic opportunities, presents a grave and mounting danger,” Waltz told the council. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That principle is not a matter of politics; it is a matter of global security. And to that end, the United States is taking lawful actions.”
The rationale was echoed by Israel, which launched strikes of their own against Iranian leadership including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed.
“We are stopping extremism before it becomes unstoppable,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said at the meeting. “We will ensure that no radical regime armed with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles can threaten our people or the entire world.”
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and other countries on the security council, however, sharply disagreed.
Guterres said both countries violated international law, while also condemning Iran’s retaliatory attacks on nations across the Middle East. He urged the U.S. and Iran to return to the negotiating table, warning of a “wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability” if strikes continue.
The United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China similarly called for a resumption of the nuclear talks that yielded little progress after three rounds over the past month.
Waltz poured cold water on a return to diplomacy, saying it “cannot succeed where there is no genuine willingness to cease aggression, where there is no genuine partner for peace.”
Iran was also present at the meeting, with its ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, suggesting the U.S. and Israel are using force to “determine the political future” of Iran.
Iravani would later spar directly with Waltz, telling him to “be polite,” saying it “would be better for yourself and the country you represent.”
Waltz then fired back, “Frankly, I am not going to dignify this with another response, especially as this representative sits here in this body representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people and imprisoned many more simply for wanting freedom from your tyranny.”
WORLD LEADERS STRESS DIPLOMATIC RESOLUTION AFTER US-ISRAEL STRIKES ON IRAN
Waltz’s defense mirrors Trump’s own after the attacks on Iran began.
Early Saturday, Trump justified the strikes as preventing a “very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.” He also said regime change was one of the mission’s goals.