Iranian, international diplomats react to US’ biased view toward the United Nations

Tabnak – Recent protests in Iran which resulted in sporadic violence in some parts of the country, interpreted by the US administration as an opportunity to increase the pressure on the Islamic Republic. However, the recent meeting of the United Nations Security Council proved that it’s quite hard for Washington to sell its idea to the other nations.

At Friday’s session of the UNSC, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley gave an exaggerated account of a series of scattered riots in some areas in Iran last week, and said Washington would remain steadfastly behind the Iranian “protesters,” attempting to bring other UNSC members onboard with Washington against the Islamic Republic.

But Haley’s political show soon went down the drain as her hostile comments against Iran was met with a cold response from Russia, China and France, three veto-holding UNSC permanent members, and several other council members, including Sweden.

Reacting to this development, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in his Twitter account that the United Nations Security Council has dismissed US blatant attempts to intervene in internal affairs of other countries.

“The UNSC rebuffed the US' naked attempt to hijack its mandate. Majority emphasized the need to fully implement the JCPOA and to refrain from interfering in internal affairs of others. Another FP [foreign policy] blunder for the Trump administration,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday.

In another twit earlier last week, Zarif had condemned US President Donald Trump’s latest claim of support for the Iranian people, saying “Trump has an odd way of showing ‘such respect’ for Iranians: from labeling them a ‘terrorist nation’ & banning them from visiting the US, to petty insults on the name of the Persian Gulf.”

Prior to Zarif’s Saturday comments, Iran’s envoy to the UN said that the United Nations Security Council’s emergency meeting on the recent protests in Iran “discredits” the council and demonstrates how Washington “abuses” its powers as a permanent member to forward its own agenda.

Addressing the largely-divided session on Friday, Iran’s Ambassador to the UN Gholamali Khoshroo expressed regret that the council had been forced to reconvene and discuss an issue that was “purely domestic.”

 Apart from the Iranian officials, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya accused the US of “abusing” the UNSC platform. “I think it is obvious for everyone that the topic chosen today does not fall within the parameters established by the UN Charter for this Security Council,” he said.

Meanwhile, even France as a European ally refused to accompany Washington in its way to blame the Islamic Republic. France’s UN Ambassador Francois Delattre said that the recent protests in Iran do not threaten international security, so it does not fit into the UN body’s agenda.

On December 28, a number of protests over economic problems broke out in several Iranian cities, but the gatherings turned violent when groups of participants, some of them armed, vandalized public property and launched attacks on police stations and government buildings.

Over a dozen people have been killed in the ensuing violence in Iran, according to state media reports.