US Stands Alone at UNSC in Anti-Iran Push

TEHRAN (defapress) – Washington failed to spur the UN Security Council to act against Iran over the recent protests in the country, as most members described it as an internal issue outside the purview of the UNSC and voiced support for the JCPOA, the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran.

News ID: 67936

Date: 06 January 2018 - 11:19

At an emergency meeting of the UNSC on Friday, held at the request of Washington, US envoy Nikki Haley pledged solidarity with the Iranian people and condemned the Iranian government for what she called suppressing protestors.

During the meeting, many nations voiced concern that the UN Security Council was not the appropriate venue to discuss protests in Iran.

“It is up to the Iranians, and to the Iranians alone, to pursue the path of peaceful dialogue, a dialogue based on full respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Iranian people,” French Ambassador Francois Delattre said.

However worrying the events of the last few days in Iran may be, they do not constitute, per se, a threat to international peace and security,” he described.

Prior to the meeting, Delattre warned against the “instrumentalization of the crisis from the outside because it would only reinforce the extremes, which is precisely what we want to avoid.”

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia also slammed the US for using the meeting to bring up the Iranian protests under a “bogus pretext.”

“Let Iran deal with its own problems,” said Nebenzia, who once again raised the idea of the Security Council meeting about protests in the US city of Ferguson, Missouri, and Occupy Wall Street demonstrations as the Russian mission to the UN did in a tweet on Tuesday, according to IANS.

Council President Kairat Umarov, speaking in his national capacity as Kazakhstan’s Permanent Representative, said that the developments in Iran were a domestic matter and, therefore, did not come under the Council’s purview.

The view was shared by most members, including France and Sweden, and many members expressed full support for the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

Last week, a number of peaceful protests over economic problems broke out in several Iranian cities, but the gatherings turned violent when groups of participants, some of them armed, vandalized public property and launched attacks on police stations and government buildings.

Over a dozen people have been killed in the ensuing violence, according to media reports.

Officials say many rioters arrested in the unrest have been trained by the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) or had links with the Takfiri groups.

Following the unrest, people of Iran held several demonstrations across the country to condemn the violent riots and acts of vandalism, and voice support for the Islamic Republic’s Establishment.

Iranian officials maintain that people have the right to stage protests to express their opinions, as long as rallies comply with the legal conditions.a