Russia:

UNSC Meeting Direct Interference in Iran’s Sovereignty

TEHRAN (defapress)- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov slammed the US for calling an emergency UN Security Council meeting following unrests in Iran, and accused Washington of fomenting unrest and destabilizing the government.

News ID: 67940

Date: 06 January 2018 - 12:49

"The United States continues its policy of open and covert interference into the affairs of other states; under the guise of concern about human rights and democracy, they shamelessly attack the sovereignty of other nations," Ryabkov said.

"It is in this light that we see America’s initiative to summon a UN Security Council meeting on a strictly internal issue," he added.

Ryabkov said that Tehran’s claims that the United States is driving the deadly street demonstrations from abroad were “not unfounded”, and added that Washington uses “any means available” to undermine hostile foreign governments.

The US called for Friday afternoon’s emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday, although majority support from the 15-member UN Security Council may be required for the discussion to go ahead. No resolution has been put forward.

Ryabkov said that Moscow will “calmly” participate in any discussion but noted that the situation “lay outside of the sphere of competence of the United Nations,” whose mission was being “sacrificed for the sake of personal ambitions of certain individuals, who want to grow their personal political capital at the expense of another country’s internal difficulties".

In a series of tweets about Iran over the past week, US President Donald Trump hailed the week-long protests, which have aired a mixture of economic and political grievances against the “corrupt” Iranian government. Trump said the opposition “will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time.” He has also used the opportunity to once again attack the “terrible” nuclear deal signed by Barack Obama in 2015.