Iranian ambassador has ‘one word only’ in warning to US
Iran’s ambassador told an emergency United Nations meeting that they have ‘one word only’ for the United States.
This came after a deadly series of attacks on the Middle Eastern country over the weekend.
The US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in the early hours of Saturday (28 February) morning, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And as Iran takes action back, Donald Trump has suggested the conflict could escalate further.
America had planned for it to last for roughly four or five weeks, with plans to destroy the country’s missile capabilities, its navy and any hope of it obtaining nuclear weapons.
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And at the UN meeting in New York City on Saturday, Iranian representative Amir Saeid Iravani gave a warning to the US.
“I have one word only,” the ambassador said. “I advise to the representative of the United States to be polite.”
Iravani added: “It will be better for yourself and the country you represented, thank you.”
And the US ambassador, Mike Waltz, replied: “Frankly, I'm not going to dignify this with another response.”
He went on to add: “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.”
The UN meeting saw Iravani describing the attacks on Iran as against international law and international legal order under the United Nations Charter.
He said: “This morning, the United States regime - jointly and in coordination with the Israeli regime - initiated an unprovoked and premeditated aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran for the second time in recent months.
“This is not only an act of aggression; it is a war crime and a crime against humanity.
“The invocation to ‘pre-emptive attack’, claims of imminent threat, or other unsubstantiated political claims, are unfounded legally, morally and politically.”
Trump has suggested the conflict could escalate further, having told CNN that a ‘big wave’ of airstrikes on Iran is yet to come.
But he also shared little detail about what his country’s exit plan might be.
In a post on Truth Social earlier today (3 March), Trump suggested the US had a ‘virtually unlimited’ supply of ‘medium and upper medium -grade’ munitions which could support the conflict ‘forever’.
The president wrote: “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better – as was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons.
“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!)”
Could Iran attack the UK?
The UK is already finding itself involved in the conflict, though it has not launched strikes against Iran itself.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has now given permission for the US to launch strikes on Iran from British military bases for ‘specific and limited defensive purposes’.
RAF Akrotiri, a UK military base in Cyprus, was hit by a drone strike - believed to be from Iran-backed militia Hezbollah - on Sunday (1 March), followed by two more strikes on Monday morning, which were intercepted.
On Saturday, 200 British military personnel were within 200m of an Iranian air strike on a US naval base in Bahrain.
UK defence secretary John Healey told the BBC on Sunday (1 March) that UK civilians and military personnel were ‘at risk with a regime that is increasingly indiscriminate, widespread and uncontrolled in the attacks it is mounting’.
Meanwhile, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper estimated that there were 300,000 British citizens in the Gulf states - who are now largely stranded as airspace closes over the region. Around 102,000 Brits have registered with the government for help.
Sky News reports that Iran’s ballistic missiles are thought to have a range of around 1,200 miles - which is not far enough to reach the UK - but Iran could hurt us in other ways.
This could be through cyber attacks, as the National Cyber Security Centre warned: “Organisations should prepare to respond to the risk of collateral impacts in the UK from Iran-linked hacktivists.”
Sky also said there could be an increased threat of terrorist activity targeting ships, troops and bases.
As well as British troops stationed in Cyprus, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan being at risk, along with civilians in the region, the publication cited RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire as a possible target for Iran.
That’s because it hosts US air force bombers which could be used in a strike against Iran.
Topics: Iran, Donald Trump, World News
Jess Battison