United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S. and Israel clashed with Iran in the U.N. Security Council as Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that military action in the Middle East risks igniting uncontrollable “chain of events” in the world’s most volatile region.

“We are witnessing a grave threat to international peace and security. Military action carries the risk of igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world,” Mr. Guterres told the emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday (February 28, 2026).

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The powerful 15-nation U.N. body met just hours after the U.S. and Israel launched military strikes against Iran and the subsequent attacks by Tehran.

Mr. Guterres condemned the massive military strikes by the U.S. and Israel against Iran as well as attacks by Tehran “violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

“In Tehran, large explosions were reported in the district that includes the presidential palace and the compound of the Supreme Leader. Several high-ranking officials have reportedly been killed, including — according to Israeli sources — Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, that I am not in a position to confirm,” Guterres said.

As the UNSC meeting was underway in the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S. President Donald Trump, currently in his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, announced the Ayatollah’s death in a post on Truth Social.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” Mr*. Trump said.

Mr. Trump warned that the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” will continue, “uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” Mr. Guterres asserted that the region and the world need a way out now and called for de-escalation and immediate cessation of hostilities.

“The alternative is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability,” he said.

In the U.N. meeting, the U.S. and Israel clashed with Iran at the Security Council horse-shoe table, with Washington’s envoy telling the international community that “history has taught us that the cost of inaction is far greater than the burden of decisive action. And our President, President Trump, has taken that decisive action today.

“…this is a moment in history that requires moral clarity, and President Trump has met the moment. The most fundamental duty of any sovereign government is the protection of its people,” Ambassador Mike Waltz, U.S. Representative to the United Nations, said.

“Iran’s continued pursuit of advanced missile capabilities, coupled with its refusal to abandon nuclear ambitions despite diplomatic opportunities, presents a grave and mounting danger.” “The international community has long affirmed a simple and necessary principle: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That principle is not a matter of politics; it is a matter of global security. And to that end, the United States is taking lawful actions,” Mr. Waltz said, adding that “where the UN lacks moral clarity, the United States of America will maintain it.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the Council that his country acted with the United States to “confront and stop an existential threat before it became irreversible.” The operation targets nuclear infrastructure, ballistic missile sites, the machinery of repression that fuels terror across our region. We did not act of impulse. We did not act of aggression. We acted out of necessity, because the Iranian regime left no reasonable alternative. This joint effort will continue for as long as the threat remains,” Danon said.

Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. Amir Saeid Iravani said the U.S. and Israel “initiated an unprovoked and premeditated aggression” against his country for the second time in the recent months.

He termed “the aggression and atrocious crime of the United States regime and the Israeli regime and the deliberate and persistent targeting of civilian infrastructure” as “not only an act of aggression, it is a war crime and a crime against humanity.” Iravani said the attack against a school in Minab, a city in the Hormozgan province of southern Iran killed more than 100 children.

He said the Security Council must immediately determine that the United States and Israel have committed an act of aggression, and demand the immediate cessation of its “unlawful use of force.”

“Israel and the United States have attacked Iran. They have violated international law and the Charter of the United Nations. They must be held accountable. So long as this aggression continues, Iran will continue to exercise its inherent right of self-defense firmly, proportionately and without hesitation, until the aggression ends. The Security Council must act now and stop this act of aggression immediately. Silence is complicity in this crime,” the Iranian envoy said.

Mr. Iravani and Mr. Waltz also engaged in a rare clash of words, with the Iranian envoy telling Mr. Waltz to be “polite” to which the American diplomat said “Frankly, I’m not going to dignify this with another response, especially as this representative sits here in this body, representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people and imprisoned many more simply for wanting freedom from your tyranny.”

Published – March 01, 2026 10:42 am IST