U.S. request granted, Security Council holds meeting on Iran

Guterres called for “maximum restraint by all actors at this sensitive moment and for refraining from any actions that could lead to further loss of life or trigger a broader regional escalation.”

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said that “the level of violence, the level of repression that the Iranian regime has unleashed against its own citizens and its own people has consequences for international peace and security.”

He added that “the people of Iran are demanding their freedom as never before in the brutal history of the Islamic Republic.”

“President Donald J. Trump and the United States stand with the brave people of Iran. Regardless of its excuses, the regime is solely responsible for the economic misery of the Iranian people and will be held accountable,” Waltz said.

Iran’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Gholamhossein Dehghani, said it was “regrettable that the representative of the U.S. regime, which requested this meeting, resorted today to lies, distortion of facts and deliberate disinformation in order to conceal his country’s direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran toward violence.”

He added that the United States had requested the meeting in order to “cover up its direct complicity in the crimes committed by its mercenaries against our country.”

“The U.S. regime is trying to present itself as a friend of the Iranian people, while at the same time laying the groundwork for political destabilization and military intervention under a so-called humanitarian narrative,” Dehghani said.

He expressed his “strong opposition” to the participation of two representatives of Iranian civil society at the Security Council meeting, stating that “they represent the political agenda of the United States and the Israeli regime.”

“Their presence here is therefore neither legitimate nor credible and fundamentally undermines the integrity of this discussion,” the Iranian ambassador said.

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said that the United States continues to escalate tensions and fuel hysteria around Iran, claiming that assistance to demonstrators is “already on the way.”

“Since late December, the entire world has been watching how the United States continues to escalate tensions and stoke hysteria around Iran, claiming that ‘help is on the way.’ Moreover, in its official statements, Washington does not even try to disguise the true reasons for its so-called concern about the country’s internal political situation, threatening new strikes against Iran,” he said at the emergency UN Security Council meeting on the deadly protests in Iran convened at the request of the United States, TASS reported.

Russia expresses solidarity with the people of Iran, Nebenzya said.

“We express solidarity with the Iranian people and mourn all innocent victims,” he stressed.

According to him, Russia strongly condemns any form of external interference or threats of force against Iran.

“Washington’s policy of using military force and threatening to use it against the Islamic Republic of Iran causes the gravest concern. We condemn such actions, regardless of the arguments used,” Nebenzya said.

He said that what is happening in Iran is yet another example of the use of so-called color revolution methods.

“What is happening in Iran is another example of the use of proven color revolution methods, in which specially trained armed provocateurs turn peaceful protests into senseless riots, pogroms, destruction of public property and brutal killings of law enforcement officers,” Nebenzya said.

He added that “third countries are trying to exploit the current situation in order to overthrow an undesirable regime in Iran.”

China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Sun Lei, said that Beijing opposes imposing one’s will on other countries and any return of the world to the “law of the jungle.”

“We oppose the use or threat of force in international relations, the imposition of one’s will on other countries, and any return of the world to the law of the jungle,” the diplomat said during the Security Council meeting on the situation in Iran.

How did it begin?

Protests in Iran began in late December 2025 due to the devaluation of the local currency, the Iranian rial. On January 8, following a call by Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former shah who was overthrown in 1979, protest marches intensified across Iran. On the same day, internet access was cut off.

In several Iranian cities, the protests turned into clashes with police and were accompanied by chants against Iran’s political system. Casualties were reported among both security forces and demonstrators.

Iranian authorities, accusing the United States and Israel of orchestrating the unrest, announced on January 12 that the situation had been brought under control.

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