Israel’s top diplomat called the strikes on Iran a “measure of last resort” to thwart Iranian nuclear weapons development and missile attacks on Israel.
The Israeli military’s operations against the Iranian regime are a “measure of last resort” that aim “to neutralize the existential and imminent threat from Iran’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile program,” Gideon Sa’ar, Israeli foreign minister, told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.
Sa’ar cited “reliable intelligence,” which he said confirms that Tehran “significantly accelerated its clandestine efforts to develop nuclear weapons” in recent months. He also noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency found Iran’s expanding uranium enrichment activity to be in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” began on Thursday night. The Jewish state has pounded parts of the country, including Tehran, and says it has killed many Iranian military leaders and scientists who were part of the nuclear program.
Sa’ar told the global body that the regime’s ballistic missiles, which have hammered Israeli cities and killed 24 since the start of the conflict, are an “intolerable threat.”
Iran reportedly increased its production of ballistic missiles recently, aiming to produce 10,000 over the next three years.
Iran’s terror proxy network throughout the region, which its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leads, planned to “encircle Israel with a ‘ring of fire’ in pursuit of Israel’s annihilation,” Sa’ar told the council.
The Israeli diplomat also wrote that the Iranian regime’s avowed goal is to “annihilate the State of Israel” and that it has attacked Israeli and Jewish sites globally, including “the massive terror attacks that were perpetrated against the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community center in Argentina.”
Sa’ar wrote that “Operation Rising Lion’s” launch was “the last window of opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and takes place after diplomacy proved ineffective.”
The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on Friday to address Israel’s opening round of strikes. The council took no action.
The United States, which U.S. President Donald Trump has implied might enter the war directly, would likely veto any effort by the council to punish Israel or bring Jerusalem’s efforts, before the Iranian threat is eliminated, to an end.
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