Observer Report
United Nations
The United States on Thursday said it is “ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations” with Iran following the countries exchange of hostilities.
In a letter to the United Nations Security Council, US Ambassador Kelly Craft said the killing of Soleimani was self-defence and vowed to take additional action “as necessary” in the Middle East to protect US personnel and interests.
The United States also stood “ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with Iran,” to maintain peace and security, she said. US Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans said administration officials had not provided evidence in classified briefings to back up Trump s assertion that Soleimani had posed an “imminent” threat to the United States.
But Iran’s UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said the US offer of talks was “unbelievable” while the US continued to enforce harsh economic sanctions on Iran.
Iran also cited Article 51 as justification for its attack on US bases.
In the Iranian letter, Ravanchi wrote that Tehran “does not seek escalation or war” after exercising its right to self-defence by taking a “measured and proportionate military response targeting an American air base in Iraq”. “The operation was precise and targeted military objectives thus leaving no collateral damage to civilians and civilian assets in the area,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Iran sent mixed signals Thursday as tensions with the US appeared to ease, with President Hassan Rouhani warning of a “very dangerous response” if the US makes “another mistake” and a senior commander vowing “harsher revenge” for the killing of a top Iranian general.
Both sides appeared to step back on Wednesday after Iran launched a series of ballistic missiles at two military bases housing American troops in Iraq without causing any casualties. Rouhani said the strike on the bases was a legitimate act of self-defense under the UN Charter, but he warned that “if the US makes another mistake, it will receive a very dangerous response.”
Abdollah Araghi, a member of Iran’s joint chiefs of staff, said the country’s Revolutionary Guard “will impose a more severe revenge on the enemy in the near future,” according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Tasnim also quoted Gen. Ali Fadavi, the acting commander of the Guard, as saying the missile attack was “just one of the manifestations of our abilities.” “We sent dozens of missiles into the heart of the US bases in Iraq and they couldn’t do a damned thing,” he was quoted as saying.
Rouhani spoke by phone Thursday with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, urging Britain to denounce the killing of Soleimani. As head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, Soleimani had mobilized armed proxies across the region and was blamed for deadly attacks against Americans going back to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. In Iran, he is seen by many as a national hero who played a key role in defeating the Daesh group and resisting Western hegemony.—AP
