Iranian and US officials traded barbs at UN Security Council meeting on deadly protests in Iran and amid threats of attack by Washington.
The United Nations Security Council has held an emergency meeting to discuss deadly protests in Iran amid threats by United States President Donald Trump to intervene militarily in the country.
Members of the influential 15-member UN body heard from Iranâs deputy UN representative, who warned at the meeting on Thursday that Iranians did not seek a confrontation but would respond to US aggression, and accused Washington of âdirect involvement in steering unrest in Iranâ.
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US representative Mike Waltz used his prepared remarks at the meeting to criticise the Iranian governmentâs response to the protests, noting that the ongoing internet blackout in Iran made it hard to verify the true extent of the crackdown by authorities there.
âThe people of Iran are demanding their freedom like never before in the Islamic Republicâs brutal history,â Waltz said, adding that Iranâs claims that the protests were âa foreign plot to give a precursor to military actionâ were a sign that its government was âafraid of their own peopleâ.
Waltz did not refer to the threats of military intervention in Iran that Trump has repeatedly made over the past week, before the president appeared to ease his escalating rhetoric over the past day.
Iranâs deputy UN envoy Gholamhossein Darzi told the council that his country âseeks neither escalation nor confrontationâ.
âHowever, any act of aggression, direct or indirect, will be met with a decisive, proportionate, and lawful response under Article 51 of the UN Charter,â Darzi said.
âThis is not a threat; it is a statement of legal reality. Responsibility for all consequences will rest solely with those who initiate such unlawful acts,â he said.
UN Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee briefed the council, saying that the âpopular protestsâ in Iran âhave rapidly evolved into nationwide upheaval, resulting in significant loss of lifeâ since beginning close to three weeks ago.
âDemonstrations started on 28 December 2025, as a group of shopkeepers in Tehranâs Grand Bazaar gathered to protest the sharp collapse of the currency and soaring inflation, amid a wider economic downturn and worsening living conditions,â Pobee said.
She added that human rights monitors have reported âmass arrestsâ in Iran, âwith estimates exceeding 18,000 detainees as of mid-January 2026â, but noted that the âUN cannot verify these figuresâ.
She called on Iran to treat detainees humanely and âto halt any executions linked to protest-related casesâ.
âAll deaths should be promptly, independently, and transparently investigated,â Pobee added.
âThose responsible for any violations must be held to account in line with international norms and standards.â
Iranian âForeign âMinister Abbas Araghchi denied on Wednesday that Tehran had plans to execute antigovernment protesters.
In an interview with Fox News, Araghchi said âthere is no plan for hanging at allâ when asked whether there were plans to execute protesters.
âHanging is âout of the âquestion,â he â said.
The UNSC also heard from two representatives of Iranian civil society, including Iranian-American journalist and government critic Masih Alinejad, who told the council that âreal and concrete actionâ is âneeded now to bring justice to those who order massacres in Iranâ.
Addressing Darzi and the Iranian government, Alinejad said: âYou have tried to kill me three times ⊠My crime? Simply echoing the voice of innocent people that you kill.â
Thursdayâs meeting came as the US imposed further sanctions against the Iranian leadership, including Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iranâs Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and several other officials, who it said were the âarchitectsâ of Tehranâs âbrutalâ response to the demonstrations.
Iran has already been under heavy sanctions for years, further worsening the economic crisis that has, in part, spurred the recent wave of public protests.
Iranian-American journalist and writer Masih Alinejad speaks during a UNSC session on the deadly Iran protests at UN headquarters in New York, on Thursday [Sarah Yenesel/EPA]