LOC20:45
17:45 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, April 14 (KUNA) -- Tehran on Tuesday urged the UN Security
Council (UNSC) to react to Israel's continuous "insolent threats" to conduct a
military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, warning that it will act in
self-defense if attacked.
In a letter to the council president, Mexico, Iranian UN envoy Mohammad
Khazaee referred to an interview last Sunday by Israeli President Shimon Peres
who "repeated the same unlawful threats" by saying "we'll strike Iran" and to
another interview late last month by Israel's new Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu who said Israel "may attack Iran's nuclear facilities."
Khazaee said these "outrageous threats of resorting to criminal and
terrorist acts" against a sovereign country and a UN member "not only display
the aggressive and warmongering nature of the Zionist regime," but also
constitute "blatant violations" of international law and of the UN Charter,
and "require a clear and resolute response from the UN, particularly the
Security Council."
"The Security Council should react to these vicious statements by
unambiguously condemning them and calling on the said regime to cease and
desist immediately from the threat of using force against Members of the
United Nations," Khazaee said in his letter.
He reiterated that Iran "has never threatened nor has any intention to
threaten other nations, nonetheless and in response to any aggression, it will
not hesitate to act in self-defense to protect itself and its people in
accordance with its inherent right under Article 51 of the UN Charter."
He recalled that these threats are continuing unabated in total defiance of
the provisions of the UN Charter which calls for refraining "from the threat
or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of
any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United
Nations."
He noted that Israel, "emboldened by the absence of any action on the part
of the United Nations," continues its "war crimes and crimes against humanity"
against the Palestinians and other Arab peoples under its brutal occupation,
"particularly against the innocent Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," and also
persists on its "vicious threats against the nations that show sympathy to the
innocent Palestinian people, including against my country." (end)
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