US Warns Iran at UN: Don’t Target Us or Israel

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Sep. 1, 2024. (AP)
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Sep. 1, 2024. (AP)
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US Warns Iran at UN: Don’t Target Us or Israel

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Sep. 1, 2024. (AP)
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Sep. 1, 2024. (AP)

The United States warned Iran at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday against targeting it or Israel as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the "deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must stop" in the Middle East.

"Time is running out," he told the council.

The 15-member council met after Israel killed the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah and began a ground assault against the Iran-backed armed group and Iran attacked Israel in a strike that raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

"Our actions have been defensive in nature," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council.

"Let me be clear: The Iranian regime will be held responsible for its actions. And we strongly warn against Iran – or its proxies – taking actions against the United States, or further actions against Israel," she said.

French UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said France wants the Security Council to "show unity and to speak with one voice" to de-escalate the situation. Thomas-Greenfield said the council should condemn Iran's attack and impose "serious consequences" on Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps for its actions.

"We have a collective responsibility, as members of the Security Council, to impose additional sanctions on the IRGC for supporting terrorism, and for flouting so many of this Council's resolutions," the US ambassador said.

Guterres told the council he strongly condemned Iran's attack on Israel. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel's foreign minister said he was barring Guterres from entering the country because he had not done so.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia praised Iran for "exceptional" restraint in recent months and said the missile attack on Israel could not be "presented as though all of this happened in a vacuum, as though nothing is happening - and nothing did happen - in Lebanon and Gaza, in Syria, in Yemen."

"But it did happen, and it led to a new, very dangerous spiral of a widening Middle East conflict," Nebenzia said.

In a letter to the Security Council on Tuesday, Iran justified its attack on Israel as self-defense under Article 51 of the founding UN Charter, citing "aggressive actions" by Israel including violations of Iran's sovereignty.

"Iran ... in full compliance with the principle of distinction under international humanitarian law, has only targeted the regime's military and security installations with its defensive missile strikes," Iran wrote to the council.

Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon on Wednesday rejected Iran's claim of self-defense.

"It was a calculated attack on a civilian population," he told reporters before the council met. "Israel will not stand by in the face of such aggression. Israel will respond. Our response will be decisive, and yes, it will be painful, but unlike Iran we will act in full accordance with international law."



Harris Reiterates Support for Gaza Ceasefire as Conflict Escalates

Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs after speaking at the Tribal Nations Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Nov. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs after speaking at the Tribal Nations Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Nov. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
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Harris Reiterates Support for Gaza Ceasefire as Conflict Escalates

Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs after speaking at the Tribal Nations Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Nov. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP)
Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs after speaking at the Tribal Nations Summit in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Nov. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP)

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Washington will continue to pressure Israel and other players in the Middle East to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza even as advocates say that the United States has not thus far used its leverage over its ally.

In an interview with CBS news show "60 Minutes," Harris said that diplomatic work with Israel is "an ongoing pursuit," according to a clip released on Sunday.

Harris sidestepped a question in the interview on whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a "real close ally."

"I think with all due respect the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people and the answer to that question is yes," Harris said, Reuters reported.

Harris reiterated Washington's position to support Israel's right to self defense against Iran and Iran-backed militant groups like Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah.

"Now the work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles," Harris said.

"We're not going to stop in terms of putting that pressure on Israel and in the region including Arab leaders," Harris said.

Washington's occasional condemnation of Israel over the war's civilian death toll has mostly been verbal with no substantive change in policy.

Advocates say Washington has not put pressure on its ally by refusing to put an arms embargo that anti-war protesters around the United States and the world have demanded for months. Protests were also held over the weekend.

President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire plan for Gaza on May 31 but a deal between Israel and Hamas has not been reached due to gaps in exchanges of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and Israel's demand that it maintain presence in a corridor on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel has also been separately carrying out a military campaign in Lebanon which in recent days has killed hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million.