United Nations Security Council (UNSC). PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
UNITED NATIONS:
World leaders reacted cautiously on Saturday to US and Israeli attacks on Iran that sowed fears of a wider conflict.
The UN Security Council planned an emergency meeting, called at the request of Bahrain and France. The meeting takes place at 4:00 PM (local time, Sunday 2:00 AM PST).
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the heads of UN agencies have condemned Saturday’s joint Israeli and US attacks on Iran and the Iranian retaliatory attacks on Israel and the Persian Gulf regions.
“I condemn today’s military escalation in the Middle East,” the UN chief said in a statement as French President Emmanuel Macron called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to address the attacks, which have targeted Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure.
In his statement, Guterres, the UN chief, declared that the military escalation in the region undermines international peace and security and recalled that all member states must “respect their obligations under international law, including the Charter of the United Nations,” which prohibits “the threat of the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State in accordance with the purposes of the United Nations or for the purposes of any other nation.”
He called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation, warning that failure to do so risks a wider regional conflict with serious consequences for civilians and regional stability.
Senior officials added their own responses on Saturday morning: Volker Turk, the high commissioner for human rights, said bombs and missiles are not the way to resolve differences, but “only result in death, destruction and human misery.” Civilians, he noted, “end up paying the ultimate price.”
Turk called on all parties to return to negotiations to avoid a wider conflict that would mean further civilian deaths and “devastation on a potentially unimaginable scale, not only in Iran but throughout the Middle East”.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement that he was deeply troubled by the situation and called on leaders to “choose the challenging path of dialogue over the senseless path of destruction.”
Many nations, perhaps wary of upsetting already strained relations with US President Donald Trump, refrained from commenting directly or pointedly on the joint strikes, but condemned Tehran’s retaliation. Like Europeans, governments throughout the Middle East condemned Iran’s attacks on Arab neighbors while remaining silent on the US military action.
Other countries were more explicit: Australia and Canada expressed open support for the US attacks, while Russia and China responded with direct criticism.
The United States and Israel launched a major attack on Iran on Saturday, with US President Donald Trump urging the Iranian public to “seize control of your destiny” by rising up against the Islamic theocracy that has ruled the nation since 1979. Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones at Israel and US military bases in the Middle East.
In a statement, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on the United States and Iran to resume talks and said they favor a negotiated solution. They said their countries did not participate in the attacks on Iran, but are in close contact with the United States, Israel and partners in the region.
The three countries have led efforts to reach a negotiated solution to Iran’s nuclear program.
“We condemn in the strongest terms Iranian attacks on countries in the region. Iran must refrain from indiscriminate military attacks. We call for a resumption of negotiations and urge the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution. Ultimately, the Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future,” they said.
Later, at an emergency security meeting, Macron said France was “neither alerted nor involved” in the strikes. He called for intensified efforts for a negotiated solution, saying that “no one can think that the issues of Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic activity, regional destabilization will be solved by strikes alone.”
The 22-nation Arab League called the Iranian attacks “a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of countries that advocate peace and strive for stability.” This coalition of nations has historically condemned both Israel and Iran for actions it says risk destabilizing the region.
Countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Israel – including Morocco, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates – condemned Iranian attacks targeting US military bases in the region, including in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the Emirates.
Saudi Arabia said it “strongly condemns and condemns the treacherous Iranian aggression and the flagrant violation of sovereignty.”
Oman, which has mediated the Iran-US talks, said in a statement that the US action “constitutes a violation of the rules of international law and the principle of settling disputes by peaceful means, rather than through hostility and bloodshed.”
Countries in Europe and the Middle East used careful wording, avoiding the perception that they either support unilateral American action or directly condemn the United States.
Others were more blunt. Russia’s Foreign Ministry called the strikes “a pre-planned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent UN member state.” The ministry accused Washington and Tel Aviv of “hiding behind” concerns about Iran’s nuclear program while actually pursuing regime change.
Similarly, China’s government said it was “deeply concerned” by the US and Israeli attacks on Iran and called for an immediate halt to the military action and a return to negotiations. “Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country supports the United States in its efforts to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. He described Iran’s current leadership as a destabilizing force and noted two attacks on Australian soil that were blamed on Tehran. Last August, Australia cut diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled its ambassador after accusing it of orchestrating two anti-Semitic attacks in the country.
Despite recent tensions with the United States, Canada also expressed its support for the military action. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is the most important source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said.
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank said they were largely unmoved when the war broke out on Saturday, hardly pausing as booms echoed across the sky from Israel’s Iron Dome intercepting missiles above.
Unlike Israel, Palestinian cities have no warning sirens or bomb shelters, despite the risk of falling debris or stray missiles. As people took shelter less than 10 miles away in Jerusalem, the streets of Ramallah teemed with shoppers browsing meat counters, vegetable stalls and Ramadan sweets, some stopping to record the sound of distant sirens and missile launches.
But as Israel closed checkpoints to the movement of people and goods on Saturday, petrol stations saw longer queues than usual as residents filled reserve containers in case of supply disruptions.
Nervousness is palpable in several countries as people fear a full-scale war engulfing the region. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that he was concerned that the talks between the US and Iran did not mean a “new full-scale war in the Middle East.”
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons condemned the US and Israeli attacks on Iran in stronger terms. “These attacks are totally irresponsible and risk provoking further escalation as well as increasing the danger of nuclear proliferation and the use of nuclear weapons,” said its executive director, Melissa Parke.
EU leaders issued a joint statement on Saturday calling for restraint and engaging in regional diplomacy in hopes of “ensuring nuclear security.”
“We call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint, to protect civilians and to fully respect international law,” said the statement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa.
The Arab League also appealed to all international parties “to work towards de-escalation as soon as possible, to spare the region from the scourge of instability and violence, and to return to dialogue.”
