Iran warns UN of ‘explosion’ in Mideast after US veto of ceasefire resolution
In a call with UN chief Antonio Guterres, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also claims Hamas did not violate the ceasefire
Iran warned of the threat of an “uncontrollable explosion” of the situation in the Middle East on Saturday, after the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group.
“As long as America supports the crimes of the Zionist regime [Israel] and the continuation of the war… there is a possibility of an uncontrollable explosion in the situation of the region,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the top diplomat of the Islamic Republic, told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a phone call, according to an Iranian foreign ministry statement.
The Iranian foreign minister praised the UN chief’s decision to use Article 99 of the UN Charter — a move decried by Israel — as “brave action to maintain international peace and security.”
Fighting resumed between Israel and Hamas on December 1 following a one-week temporary truce that was violated by the terror group.
Tehran, which seeks Israel’s elimination, is a major backer of Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups. It also has terror proxies across the Middle East, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Houthis in Yemen.
These groups have carried out a series of attacks against Israel and US forces in the region since the start of the war.
Amir-Abdollahian also sought to divert the blame for the end of the ceasefire from Hamas, even though the terror group failed to free the remaining women and child hostages as previously agreed and fired rockets into Israel.
“The Israeli regime’s claim that Hamas has violated the ceasefire is completely false,” Amir-Abdollahian told Guterres, adding that US support for Israel “has made it difficult to achieve a lasting ceasefire.”
The US vetoed a UN resolution Friday backed by 13 of the 15 Security Council members and many other nations demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Britain abstained.
US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood criticized the council after the vote for its failure to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacres in Israel — in which thousands of terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians slaughtered amid brutal atrocities, and took about 240 hostages — or to acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself.
Wood said the resolution was “divorced from reality” and “would have not moved the needle forward on the ground.” He declared that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war.”
He attacked the resolution’s sponsors, criticizing them for rushing it through and leaving the call for an unconditional ceasefire unchanged.
“For that reason, while the United States strongly supports a durable peace, in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security, we do not support calls for an immediate ceasefire,” Wood said.
