Iran warned the United States it would come under fire unless Israel stops bombing Gaza, as it spoke prior to the United Nations General Assembly vote on a ceasefire to the Gaza War.
“The United States should stop supporting genocide in Gaza and Palestine,” Iranian FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told the UNGA on Thursday morning at the start of a two-day debate.
Some 109 nations out of the UN’s 193 member states were expected to take the floor to speak about a resolution put forward by Jordan on the need for a humanitarian ceasefire to the war which has captivated international attention over the last 20 days.
Abdollahian in his remarks in support of the Palestinians also addressed the potential of the Gaza War to become an open conflict between Iran and the United States.
“Today in New York and in the UN, I say frankly to the American statesmen who are now managing the genocide in Palestine that we do not welcome the expansion of the war in the region.
Iran warns the US
“But I warn if the genocide in Palestine will continue they will not be spared from this fire, it is our home and West Asia is our region,” Abdollahian said.
“We have no reservation when it comes to our home's security,” he said.
The resolution does not condemn Hamas for massacring over 1,400 people and taking more than 224 of them hostage during its assault on southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the war.
Some 33 countries have citizens among the dead and the missing.
Jordan, on behalf of the Arab Group, turned to the UNGA with a resolution on the matter after it became clear that American-Russian rivalry would prevent the United Nations Security Council from issuing any joint statement on the conflict.
The resolution, which calls for the release of the hostages and the need to protect all civilians, focuses primarily on helping the Palestinians in Gaza, where Hamas asserts that close to 7,000 have died since the start of the war.
Israel has not provided any casualty figures from Gaza but has said that deaths there are the result of IDF bombings and failed Palestinian rocket launches.
The UNGA resolution is non-binding but serves as a form of international referendum on public opinion at the diplomatic level on the war.
Abdollahian described Hamas as a “Palestinian liberation movement” and justified the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel.
Hamas, he said, is fighting “the occupation and has a legitimate right” to use all means, including violence to support that cause.
He also compared the Hamas hostages with Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails.
“According to our negotiations, Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners. The world should support the release of 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons,” Abdollahian said.
Hamas “has voiced its readiness to lease the non-military prisoner to us,” Abdollahian said. Iran “stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavor along with Qatar and Turkey,” he added.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, who spoke before Abdollahian, accused Iran of masterminding the October 7 attack.
Iran “trained, funded, and armed Hamas” to execute the assault, Erdan said.
The Islamic Republic has the “blood” of thousands of Israelis and hundreds of thousands of its own citizens on its hands, as well as the blood of Ukrainians, Americans, and Emiratis, he said.
Given its role as the number one state sponsor of terrorism, Abdollahian should have been barred from addressing the UNGA, he stated.
“The country with a Nazi ideology of annihilating Israel stands in solidarity with it proxy Hamas, which shares the same Nazi ideology and aims for our destruction,” Erdan said.
“This man, this mass murderer, or any other representative of the terror regime in Iran, has no place at the UN, let alone in the family of nations!” Erdan added.