Tehran: UN Should Condemn Israel's Threats Against Iran

Iran has requested the United Nations to condemn Israel's implicit threat against the Islamic Republic regarding its "eradication from the world stage." This comes as Iranian officials have been threatening Israel with similar phrases for years. Iran's permanent mission to the UN wrote in a letter to the Secretary-General and the Security Council that statements made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Iran in Dimona, where Israel's nuclear facilities are located, constitute a "serious threat to international peace and security." According to domestic media, Iran's letter is set to be published as a document of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly. On September 7, Netanyahu stated: "Those who threaten us with eradication from the world stage should know that they are also exposing themselves to a similar danger and will not achieve their goal." Although the Israeli Prime Minister did not explicitly name a country, Iranian officials have consistently threatened Israel with destruction since the 1979 revolution. With the onset of the civil war in Syria and Iran and Hezbollah's support for Bashar al-Assad, tensions between Tehran and Tel Aviv have increased, and Israel has attacked Iranian and Hezbollah positions in Syria multiple times in recent years. In Iran's recent letter to the UN and the Security Council, Israel's "nuclear weapons," which Tehran describes as a regime with a "long history of aggression, occupation, militarism, state terrorism, and other international crimes," are labeled as the "greatest threat to regional peace and security." Iran's permanent mission to the UN calls on the international community to adopt a "strong stance against Israel's reckless actions and nuclear threats" and to compel it to comply with international regulations and the UN Charter. Iran has also requested that the UN compel Tel Aviv to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and place its nuclear program under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. In this letter, Iran is introduced as a "victim of weapons of mass destruction, specifically chemical weapons," and it states that UN members "should not only ignore this nuclear threat but must take decisive action to ensure the eradication of all its nuclear weapons." Recently, an Israeli minister announced that if Iran decides to continue its nuclear program, it will face a "military" response. Israel Katz, the Israeli Minister of Intelligence, reacted to statements made by Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, who said Iran is ready to build advanced centrifuges and increase uranium enrichment. According to Katz, if Iran develops its nuclear program, it will face a "direct threat from the US and its allies." Israel, as a serious critic of the JCPOA nuclear agreement, has openly welcomed the US withdrawal from it and has urged Washington and the European Union to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic. Netanyahu has described the only "benefit" of this agreement as "bringing Israel closer to the Arab world," while Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Defense Minister, has stated that Arab countries have long ceased to raise the issue of Palestine and Palestinians in discussions with Israel, focusing instead on topics such as "Iran's threats" and regional security. The Israeli Prime Minister has repeatedly criticized European countries for what he calls "conciliatory gestures and concessions" to Iran and has called for their support in "decisive actions by the Trump administration against the regime of terror in Tehran." The US government is attempting to rally other countries to a policy of multilateral pressure on Iran, with the second wave of sanctions against Tehran set to be implemented in mid-November, primarily aimed at halting Iran's oil exports.