Iran’s foreign minister accused the US of directing Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying in a fiery speech at the United Nations that America “will not be spared from this fire” if the fighting is not halted.
“We have always supported peace and security, but today in New York and the United Nations I say frankly to the American statesman who are now managing the genocide in Palestine that we do not welcome an expansion of the war in the region,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in his address.
“But I warn, if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire,” he went on. “It is our home and West Asia is our region. We do not compromise with any party and any side, and we have no reservation when it comes to other homes’ security.”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Islamic Republic of Iran also called for the “genocide” and “forced displacement of the people of Gaza” to stop and “urgent and wider humanitarian aid” to be delivered to the territory.
“According to international law, the Palestinian liberation movement Hamas is fighting the occupation and has a legitimate right,” he said.
“Mr. President, according to our negotiations, Hamas is ready to release civilian prisoners; on the other hand, the world should support the release of 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.”
Israeli officials have reportedly delayed a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip meant to crush Hamas, in part to allow continued negotiations over the release of more than 200 hostages held by the jihadists.
The captives are believed to include 10 Americans after two were released by Hamas last week.
Tehran has long funded terror groups across the Middle East and helped plan and signed off on Hamas’ Oct. 7 multi-front assault that killed more than 1,400 people, including at least 33 Americans, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Conservatives were not impressed with the decision to grant Abdollahian a visa to enter the US.
“The President may not want to set red lines, but the Islamic Republic in Iran certainly isn’t afraid to,” former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said on X. “On our soil. While they plot to kill cabinet officials.”
“It’s unbelievable that we gave this terrorist loser a visa,” said pseudonymous commentator A.G. Hamilton. “Arrest him on the spot. Then trade him for the hostages in Gaza.”
“This man in threatening us, while in our country, as his regime has been actively attacking Americans — in the immediate aftermath of a Jew massacre that said regime planned and funded, which killed dozens of US citizens,” said Fox News Radio host Guy Benson.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday that the US had “allowed” the Iranian foreign minister to attend the UN General Assembly vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Kirby added that the US was “certainly going to take advantage of the opportunity” in permitting Tehran’s foreign minister to come into the country, but had no control over meetings hosted by the UN secretary general “at the foreign ministerial level.”
“We hope others at the UN take advantage of the opportunity to ask tough questions of him and what his country is doing to support these militia groups and what his country is doing to support Hamas and Hezbollah,” Kirby stressed.
“This is an opportunity for world leaders up there in New York to make their perspectives and their concerns known directly to the Iranian foreign minister.”
In January 2020, the Trump administration denied a visa to then-Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, barring him from attending a UN Security Council meeting.
Amir-Abdollahian issued a similar warning after a rocket exploded at a Gaza City hospital last week, declaring that Israel’s “Time is OVER!”
“After the terrible crime of the Zionist regime in the bombing and massacre of more than 1,000 innocent women and children in the hospital, the time has come for the global unity of humanity against this fake regime more hated than ISIS and its killing machine,” he posted on X.
The Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria also posted the message “time is up” in both Hebrew and Arabic on their X accounts.
US intelligence officials later determined with a “high confidence” assessment involving video footage, photos and geolocation devices that the rocket had been launched by Palestine Islamic Jihad.
A subsequent low confidence assessment also reported between 100 and 300 Palestinian casualties, far fewer than the count initially reported.
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