\n\tNEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that expansion of the Israel-Iran conflict could \u201cignite a fire no one can control\u201d and called on both sides and potential parties to the conflict to \u201cgive peace a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, speaking at the same United Nations Security Council session, warned that attacks on nuclear facilities could result in the release of radiation \u201cwithin and beyond boundaries\u201d of Iran, and called for maximum restraint.<\/p>\n
Guterres said there were \u201cmoments when the directions taken will shape not just the fate of nations, but potentially our collective future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such a moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said expansion of the conflict would \u201cignite a fire that no one can control\u201d and added: \u201cWe must not let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the parties to the conflict, the potential parties to the conflict, and to the Security Council as the representative of the international community, I have a simple and clear message: give peace a chance,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n
The Security Council session took place as European foreign ministers met their Iranian counterpart on Friday hoping to test Tehran\u2019s readiness to negotiate a new nuclear deal despite there being scant prospect of Israel ceasing its attacks soon.<\/p>\n
Israel has repeatedly bombed nuclear targets in Iran and Iran has fired missiles and drones at Israel as a week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side.<\/p>\n
The White House said on Thursday US President Donald Trump would make a decision within the next two weeks whether to get involved on Israel\u2019s side. Iran said on Friday it would not discuss the future of its nuclear program while under attack by Israel.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said his country sought genuine efforts to dismantle Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities from Friday\u2019s meeting between European and Iranian ministers, not just another round of talks<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen diplomatic talks for the last few decades, and look at the results,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it is going to be like another session and debates, that\u2019s not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, outlined Israeli attacks on nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Arak.<\/p>\n
He said the level of radioactivity outside Iran\u2019s Natanz site has remained unchanged and at normal levels, indicating no external radiological impact on the population or the environment there.<\/p>\n
However, he said that within the facility there was both radiological and chemical contamination. He said the IAEA was not aware of any damage at Iran\u2019s Fordow plant at this time.<\/p>\n
An attack on Iran\u2019s Bushehr plant would be most serious, he said: \u201cIt is an operating nuclear power plant and hosts thousands of kilograms of nuclear material.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make it absolutely and completely clear: In the case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity to the environment,\u201d Grossi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimilarly, a hit that disabled the only two lines supplying electrical power to the plant could cause its reactor\u2019s core to melt.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said any action against the Tehran nuclear research reactor will also have severe consequences, \u201cpotentially for large areas of the city of Tehran and its inhabitants.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Dorothy Camille Shea, said the United States \u201ccontinues to stand with Israel and supports its actions against Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can no longer ignore that Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
China and Russia demanded immediate de-escalation.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said Israel\u2019s actions risked pulling third countries into the conflict and internationalization of the conflict must be avoided.<\/p>\n
He said targeting of what he called Iran\u2019s peaceful civilian nuclear facilities was \u201cliable to plunge us into a hither to unseen nuclear catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that expansion of the Israel-Iran conflict could \u201cignite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-202597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114721527422487177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}