US Says Iran ‘Leading Cause of Instability’

US Ambassador Nikki Haley address a UN Security Council meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Thursday Jan. 18, 2018 at UN headquarters. Bebeto Matthews, AP
US Ambassador Nikki Haley address a UN Security Council meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Thursday Jan. 18, 2018 at UN headquarters. Bebeto Matthews, AP
TT
20

US Says Iran ‘Leading Cause of Instability’

US Ambassador Nikki Haley address a UN Security Council meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Thursday Jan. 18, 2018 at UN headquarters. Bebeto Matthews, AP
US Ambassador Nikki Haley address a UN Security Council meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Thursday Jan. 18, 2018 at UN headquarters. Bebeto Matthews, AP

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has said the regimes that most threaten the world today with weapons of mass destruction — North Korea, Iran and Syria — also promote conflict and regional instability and "aid terrorists and militant groups."

Haley called Iran on Thursday "the leading cause of instability in an unstable part of the world."

Tehran supports "terrorists, proxy militants and murderers like (the head of the Syrian regime) Bashar Assad,” she told the UN Security Council that met on confidence-building measures to tackle the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Haley said the international community must respond to Iran's "dangerous violations" of its obligations in the UN resolution endorsing the nuclear deal, "not because we want the nuclear deal to fail, but because we want the cause of nonproliferation to succeed."

The diplomat also said that North Korea poses the greatest threat to nuclear proliferation and is continuing "its reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons ... while its people starve and to threaten other nations while intimidating its own citizens."

Haley accused Russia of vetoing three council resolutions and preventing the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from holding Assad's regime accountable for the use of chemical weapons in Syria.



UN Security Council to Meet Sunday over US Strikes on Iran

Members of the United Nations Security Council listen as Ambassador Majed Bamya, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, speaks meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the UN headquarters on November 20, 2024 in New York City. (Getty Images via AFP)
Members of the United Nations Security Council listen as Ambassador Majed Bamya, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, speaks meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the UN headquarters on November 20, 2024 in New York City. (Getty Images via AFP)
TT
20

UN Security Council to Meet Sunday over US Strikes on Iran

Members of the United Nations Security Council listen as Ambassador Majed Bamya, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, speaks meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the UN headquarters on November 20, 2024 in New York City. (Getty Images via AFP)
Members of the United Nations Security Council listen as Ambassador Majed Bamya, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, speaks meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the UN headquarters on November 20, 2024 in New York City. (Getty Images via AFP)

The United Nations Security Council is due to meet later on Sunday, diplomats said, after the United States joined Israel's assault on Iran and hit the country's main nuclear sites overnight in strikes with massive bunker-busting bombs, Reuters reported.

Iran requested the meeting, calling on the 15-member body "to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms."

Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the US and Israel "do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place."