Iran rules out ‘negotiation under threat’, seeks UN intervention

• Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian has warned that Tehran would deliver “more painful” responses if the United States fails to restrain Israel. In a phone call with Sultan Haitham bin Tariitq of Oman, Pezeshkian said that Iran’s retaliatory capability was demonstrated when its forces swiftly targeted attackers following deadly Israeli attacks. “Should such violations repeat, Iran’s response will be even harsher,” the president said and asserted that no attack on Iran would occur without American approval. “Negotiation under threat, coercion, and aggression is not possible,” Pezeshkian said.

• Iran’s envoy to the UN Sa’eed Iravani told reporters that Israel’s attacks on Iran crossed all the red lines. Israel deliberately targeted a peaceful nuclear facility operating under IAEA safeguards, an unlawful act which posed a serious risk of releasing radioactive material. Indiscriminate attacks targeting civilian infrastructure, homes, hospitals and Iran’s national TV headquarters were attacked by Israel, he said. Bombs and missiles on densely populated areas had killed or injured 1,481 people, among them 224 civilians, including women and children, who have been killed. Many of the victims are children. This number may rise. Israel also targeted water storage, fuel depots, and petrochemical facilities—including the Asaluyeh refinery in Bushehr were hit. These are war crimes.

• Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Aragchi in a communication to the UN wrote, “Benjamin Netanyahu is a wanted war criminal. He is also a con man who has duped successive U.S. Presidents into fighting his own wars for almost three decades. By all indications, the purpose of Netanyahu's criminal attack on Iran is to scuttle a DEAL between Iran and the U.S., which we were on the right path to achieve. He is playing yet another American President, and ever more American taxpayers, for absolute fools…it takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy. Conversely, getting the U.S. mired in the Mother of Forever Wars will destroy any prospect for a negotiated solution, with dangerous, unpredictable and likely UNFATHOMABLE consequences for regional security and the global economy. Let us not forget: Iran did NOT begin this war…

• IRNA claimed in a report that on Monday night, Iranian armed forces sent millions of Israelis into underground bomb shelters for a fourth day in a row.  Drones and missiles penetrated Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile system, which was ‘hacked’ forcing Israeli missiles being fired at Israeli locations ‘in the confusion’.

• Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative Amir Saeid Iravani in a letter to the UN underlined that Iran has taken proportionate defensive actions that have targeted only Israeli military targets and related infrastructure…following Israel’s strike on the Asaluyeh refinery and other civilian infrastructure Iran undertook additional measures targeting specific infrastructure in Israel as legitimate targets that materially supported its ongoing aggression…Despite Iran’s request to take immediate and decisive action, the Security Council’s response thus far has been marked by silence and inaction…the Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms its resolve to exercise its inherent right to self-defence until such time as Israeli aggression ceases or the Security Council acts decisively to prevent further violations.

Iran has requested the UN Security Council to unequivocally condemn the Israeli act of aggression against Iran, including the attack on civilians, civilian infrastructures, including Iranian nuclear facilities, in particular the Natanz facility, hold Israel and its accomplices fully accountable for this serious breach of international peace and security and finally take effective measures to prevent the recurrence of such acts and to uphold the authority of international law.