UNITED NATIONS, Oct 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Monday at Iran’s request following Israel’s deadly missile strikes in retaliation for an Oct 1 attack by Tehran.
The Swiss presidency of the UNSC said Sunday that the meeting would take place following the request by Iran, supported by Algeria, China and Russia.
“Israeli regime’s actions constitute a grave threat to international peace and security and further destabilise an already fragile region,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a letter to the 15-member council on Saturday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in alignment with the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and under international law, reserves its inherent right to legal and legitimate response to these criminal attacks at the appropriate time,” he wrote.
Scores of Israeli jets completed three waves of strikes before dawn on Saturday against missile factories and other sites near Tehran and in western Iran, Israel’s military said.
It was retaliation for Iran’s Oct 1 attack on Israel with about 200 ballistic missiles, and Israel warned its heavily armed arch-foe not to hit back after the latest strike.
Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon rejected Iran’s complaint at the United Nations, saying in a statement on Sunday that Iran was “trying to act against us in the diplomatic arena with the ridiculous claim that Israel has violated international law”.
“As we have stated time and time again, we have the right and duty to defend ourselves and will use all the means at our disposal to protect the citizens of Israel,” Danon said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appealed “to all parties to cease all military actions, including in Gaza and Lebanon, exert maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war and return to the path of diplomacy,” his spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday. — NNN-AGENCIES
