UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is set to hold an emergency meeting Tuesday (today) afternoon in the wake of a deadly Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus, diplomats said.
Diplomatic tensions surged as Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, announced the call for the meeting following Iran’s plea to condemn the attack. “After Israel’s airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus today, Iranians have turned to the UN Security Council to condemn this action,” Dmitry Polyansky, said in a post on X.
Scheduled for 3:00 p.m. New York time, the meeting, initiated by the Maltese presidency, comes amidst escalating concerns over violations of international law and sovereignty. In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Foreign Office strongly condemned the assault, denouncing it as an “unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of Syria” and a breach of the UN Charter. “Attacks against diplomats or diplomatic facilities are also illegal under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961,” emphasized Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.
At the UN Headquarters in New York, Iran’s Mission to the United Nations dispatched a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNSC President Vanessa Frazier of Malta, urging the global body to denounce what they termed Israel’s “heinous and abhorrent terrorist attack.”
The strike killed 13 people including seven military advisors from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), sparking condemnation from Iranian representatives who deemed it a “flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter.” The letter, penned by Iran’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Zahra Ershadi, underscored the strike’s far-reaching international implications, warning of heightened regional tensions.
“The aggressor Zionist regime bears full responsibility for its consequences,” the letter asserted, affirming Iran’s “legitimate and inherent right under international law and the United Nations Charter” to retaliate against such acts.
