Iran wants UN to blame Israel, US for war
Listen to article
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres published on Sunday, Iran demanded that the United Nations recognise Israel and the United States as being to blame for this month's war.
In addition, Iran also said that it was not convinced Israel would abide by a ceasefire that ended their 12-day war this week.
The most serious escalation to date between the arch-foes erupted on June 13, when Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that killed top military commanders and scientists linked to its disputed nuclear programme.
Israel said its aim was to keep the Islamic republic from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Tehran has consistently denied, insisting it has the right to develop nuclear power for civilian purposes like energy.
The fighting derailed nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, a staunch ally of Israel's.
"We did not start the war, but we have responded to the aggressor with all our power," Iran's armed forces chief of staff, Abdolrahim Mousavi, was quoted as saying by state television, referring to Israel.
"We have serious doubts over the enemy's compliance with its commitments including the ceasefire, we are ready to respond with force" if attacked again, he added, six days into the ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres published on Sunday, Iran demanded that the United Nations recognise Israel and the United States as being to blame for this month's war.
"We officially request hereby that the Security Council recognise the Israeli regime and the United States as the initiators of the act of aggression and acknowledge their subsequent responsibility, including the payment of compensation and reparations," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in the letter.
The United States joined Israel in its campaign during the war, carrying out strikes on three key facilities used for Iran's atomic programme.
Trump has threatened further strikes should Iran enrich uranium to levels capable of manufacturing nuclear weapons.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran had enriched uranium to 60 percent in 2021, well above the 3.67 percent limit set by a 2015 agreement from which the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018.
To make a weapon, Iran would need to enrich uranium up to 90 percent.
Israel has maintained ambiguity about its own atomic arsenal, neither officially confirming nor denying it exists, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has estimated it has 90 nuclear warheads.
According to Iran's health ministry, at least 627 civilians were killed and 4,900 injured during the 12-day war with Israel.
Retaliatory missile attacks by Iran on Israel killed 28 people, according to Israeli authorities.
During the war, Iran arrested dozens of people it accused of spying for Israel, also saying it seized equipment including drones and weapons.
Iran's parliament on Sunday voted to ban the unauthorised use of communications equipment, including tech billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service, according to the official news agency IRNA.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
25 minutes ago
- Business Recorder
Over 230,000 Afghans left Iran in June ahead of return deadline: IOM
ISLAM QALA: More than 230,000 Afghans left Iran in June, most of them deported, as returns surge ahead of a deadline set by Tehran, the United Nations migration agency said on Monday. The number of returns from Iran rose dramatically in recent weeks. Afghans have reported increased deportations ahead of the July 6 deadline announced by Iran for undocumented Afghans to leave the country. From June 1-28, 233,941 people returned from Iran to Afghanistan, International Organization for Migration spokesman Avand Azeez Agha told AFP, with 131,912 returns recorded in the week of June 21-28 alone. Since January, '691,049 people have returned, 70 percent of whom were forcibly sent back', he added. For several days last week, the number reached 30,000 per day, the IOM said, with numbers expected to increase ahead of the deadline. Afghans spilled into an IOM-run reception centre out of buses arriving back-to-back at the Islam Qala border point in western Afghanistan's Herat province on Saturday. The recent returns have been marked by a sharp increase in the number of families instead of individuals, the UN said, with men, women and children lugging suitcases carrying all their belongings. Many have few assets and few prospects for work, with Afghanistan facing entrenched poverty and steep unemployment. The country is four years into a fragile recovery from decades of war under Taliban authorities, who have called for a 'dignified' return of migrants and refugees from neighbouring countries. Over 200,000 returned to Afghanistan in past nine weeks: interior ministry Kabul's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi raised the Taliban government's concerns in a meeting with Iran's ambassador, according to a statement, saying: 'A coordinated mechanism should be put in place for the gradual return of migrants.' The cash-strapped government faces challenges in integrating the influx of returnees, which has piled on to hundreds of thousands also forced out in recent years from Pakistan – another traditional host of Afghans fleeing conflict and humanitarian crises. Severe international aid cuts have also hamstrung UN and NGO responses, with the IOM saying it was 'only able to assist a fraction of those in need'. 'On some high-volume days, such as recently at Islam Qala, assistance reached as few as three percent of undocumented returnees,' it said in a recent statement. Returnees AFP spoke to in recent days at the border cited mounting pressure by Iranian authorities and increased deportations, with none pointing to the recent Iran-Israel conflict as a spur to leave the country. However, 'regional instability – particularly the fallout from the Israel-Iran conflict – and shifting host country policies have accelerated returns, overwhelming Afghanistan's already fragile humanitarian and development systems', the UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, said in a statement. Samiullah Ahmadi, 28, was seeing his country of origin for the first time when he crossed the border. Unsure of what he would do once he reached the Afghan capital Kabul with his family, he was defiant in response to the pressures to return. 'I was born there (Iran). But the situation for Afghans is such that no matter how good you are or even if you have valid documents, they still don't treat you with respect.'
Business Recorder
6 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Turkish spy chief talks Gaza truce with senior Hamas leader
ISTANBUL: Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin met senior Hamas leaders on Sunday for talks on Gaza's humanitarian tragedy and efforts to reach a ceasefire, state news agency Anadolu reported. Kalin held talks with Mohammad Darwish, head of the political council of Hamas that rules Gaza, and his delegation at an undisclosed location, Anadolu said, citing security sources. They discussed the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza and Turkey's efforts to end the war and 'ensure the immediate passage of aid' to the territory. They also spoke of 'the need to reach a consensus among Palestinian groups during this critical period... (and) the steps to be taken to achieve a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,' the sources said. The meeting came after US President Donald Trump voiced optimism about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, saying Friday it could happen 'within the next week'. Mediators have engaged in months of negotiations aimed at ending 20 months of war in Gaza, where Israel stopped all food entering over two months ago, leading to warnings of famine. It has since allowed a resumption of food deliveries through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation involving US security contractors, with Israeli troops at the periphery.
Business Recorder
7 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Education in freefall
EDITORIAL: With nearly two-thirds of Pakistan's 240 million people under the age of 30, the country stands at a critical crossroads. This vast youth bulge could either serve as a powerful engine for economic growth and innovation or, if inadequately harnessed — as is presently the case — morph into a crisis of widespread under-education, joblessness and mounting pressure on the nation's socioeconomic and political fabric. The way things stand, it increasingly appears that we are on course for the latter. According to a statement issued by Save the Children on June 19, the outgoing fiscal year saw expenditure on education between July 2024 and March 2025 plunge by a shocking 29 percent. This is despite the prime minister's much-publicised declaration of an 'education emergency' in May last year, which now appears to be little more than a hollow slogan against the reality of deepening neglect. Despite numerous education sector reports detailing how a paucity of funds has led to a plethora of issues, ranging from schools lacking essential infrastructure, an alarmingly low student-teacher ratio, the overall substandard quality of instruction and a massive 26 million out-of-school children — around 38 percent of Pakistan's school-age population — this has clearly done little to compel federal and provincial governments to treat this area with the urgency, policy attention and budgetary outlays it deserves. Since 2018, successive governments have consistently deprioritised education, slashing its share of GDP from two percent in 2018 to just 0.8 percent this year, far below the four to six percent recommended by the UN-backed Incheon Declaration. The sharp decline in spending also belies the government's own pledge made last year to raise education funding to four percent of GDP by 2029. Far from inching anywhere close to that target, the first fiscal year since the promise has instead seen a further drop in allocations, exposing a glaring lack of seriousness and political will to follow through on the most basic of educational commitments. As Save the Children warns, the harshest impact of this will fall on children in Pakistan's poorest areas, where already daunting barriers to education have now grown even more insurmountable. The latest Pakistan Education Statistics report, compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Education, explains how access to education is shaped — and often denied — by regional, gender and socioeconomic disparities. A striking example is that of Balochistan, where 75 percent of girls remain out of school, a single statistic that perfectly encapsulates the intersection of both regional and gender-based inequalities. Taking the example of our most deprived province further, only 21 percent of its schools have electricity connections, just 28 percent have access to drinking water, 43 percent have toilets and less than half — 48 percent — are enclosed by a boundary wall. This dismal state of infrastructure stems directly from chronic underfunding, which also significantly hampers enrolment efforts, as parents are understandably reluctant to send their children — especially girls — to schools that lack the most rudimentary of facilities. Dedicated, uninterrupted funding streams for education are also essential to ensure that schooling remains insulated, as far as possible, from climate-fuelled emergencies, like heatwaves and floods, which have too often in recent times led to prolonged school closures, disrupting learning for millions of children. Most crucially, the growing number of out-of-school children also increases the likelihood of early marriages and child labour, making it even more difficult to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. It stands to reason then that breaking down the systemic barriers holding back access to education requires more than meaningless rhetoric; it demands urgent, sustained funding and genuine political will across all provinces. Inaction will end up condemning yet another generation to the margins. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
