Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani, Permanent Representative of Iran to the UN, speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on threats to international peace and security at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. AFP
Speaking at an emergency session of the UN Security Council late on Friday, Iravani said Iran reserves the right to respond “at a time, in a place, and by means of its choosing,” according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Iravani said the Israeli attacks killed 78 people and wounded more than 320 others, many of them civilians, including women and children, as reported by AFP.
Ahead of the session, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, submitted a letter to the Security Council calling the strikes “a grave violation of Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity but also constitute acts of aggression and war crimes.”
Araghchi also spoke with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, by phone on Friday, detailing reported strikes on military sites, nuclear facilities, and residential areas, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.
Guterres expressed concern over the attacks and reiterated the UN’s commitment to de-escalation.
Israel launched airstrikes early Friday on targets across Iran, including military installations and the Natanz uranium enrichment facility. The strikes continued into Saturday.
Among those killed were several high-ranking military officials, including Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces; Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of its aerospace division.
Iran state television also reported Saturday the deaths of multiple nuclear scientists, including Ali Bakaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeed Borji.
Iran has since launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes on Israel from Friday into Saturday morning, killing at least three people and injuring dozens.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, condemned the Israeli operation and vowed further retaliation.
“With this crime, the Zionist regime has prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate, which it will definitely see,” he said.
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