Ali Bahreini, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office in Geneva attends a session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 16, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Iran vowed at the United Nations on Monday (March 16, 2026) that it would not submit to “lawless aggression”, and said its citizens were in “grave danger” from U.S. and Israeli strikes.
At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where countries were discussing the rights situation in Iran — notably following its deadly crackdown on protesters in recent months — Tehran said the focus instead should be on the war in West Asia.
“The most urgent and fundamental human rights issue concerning Iran is the imminent threat to the lives of 90 million people whose lives are in immediate and grave danger under the shadow of reckless military aggression,” said Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
He called it “an aggression that is carried out by some of the most lawless and unscrupulous actors on the international stage”.
Mr. Bahreini said that if such “reckless militarism” was met with indifference, “Iran will most certainly not be the last country to suffer such treatment”.
On February 28, the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, that has seen the Islamic republic retaliate against multiple countries in the West Asia.
Iranian cultural heritage under attack
During a session on Iran’s record, Mr. Bahreini urged the UN’s top rights body to instead discuss the Iranian cultural heritage under “indiscriminate” attack and “the innocent children massacred at their school desks”.
United States and Israel conducted a deadly missile attack on a school in the southern city of Minab. Washington has said it is investigating the incident. AFP does not have access to the site.
The ambassador said more than 1,300 people had been killed in Iran and more than 7,000 injured since the U.S.-Israeli strikes began.
“Under such circumstances, what exactly is Iran expected to do?” he asked, stating: “Iran is not a nation that submits to coercion, intimidation or lawless aggression.”
‘Wounded protesters arrested’
The six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, plus Jordan, condemned Iran’s attacks on their territories, saying they endangered regional security and civilian lives, and “cannot be justified under any pretext”.
The UN Human Rights Council was holding an interactive dialogue between nations and the council’s special rapporteur on rights in Iran and its fact-finding mission on the country.
Special rapporteur Mai Sato said Tehran’s deadly crackdown on the nationwide protests that began on December 28, in which “over 7,000 deaths have been reported by civil society”, followed a “pattern of persecution” that long predated the uprising.
“What was new and what has left a profound impression on me was the violation of medical neutrality,” she said.
“Hospitals were raided. Wounded protesters arrested from their beds. Medical professionals assaulted and arrested. A state directive instructing hospitals to provide information on injured protesters.
“The result was a healthcare system in which the injured feared seeking treatment more than the injuries themselves, and the act of saving life criminalised.”
She said that the U.S.-Israeli strikes “remain unlawful, no matter the assumed or stated objectives of those strikes”.
She said her mandate exists for the people of Iran, and whether perpetrators are Iranian or foreign, “the people harmed are the same”.
The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran has said the war in the West Asia is likely to result in worsening institutionalised domestic repression of Iranian citizens.
Published – March 16, 2026 11:34 pm IST
