Merve Aydogan
23 June 2025•Update: 23 June 2025
HAMILTON, Canada
Russia on Sunday strongly condemned the recent US and Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, calling them "irresponsible, dangerous and provocative actions" during an emergency session of the UN Security Council.
"Russia condemns in the most decisive terms the irresponsible, dangerous and provocative actions committed by the USA against the Islamic Republic of Iran, a sovereign member state of the United Nations," said Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia.
He said the US, in full coordination with Israel, launched "unprovoked missile and bomb attacks on three nuclear sites in Iran, sites under IAEA safeguards -- Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan."
"In so doing, Washington yet again demonstrated its complete contempt for the position of the international community," he said, warning that the US has "opened a Pandora's Box. No one knows what new catastrophes and suffering it will bring."
Nebenzia accused the US of being willing to "gamble with the safety and well-being of humanity as a whole" to serve Israel's interests and said: "No one gave the US the authority to act in such a way."
Citing calls for Iranian restraint, he said: "It's very strange to be participating in this theatre of the absurd…They're calling on Iran to exercise restraint. We've seen a lot of hypocrisy in this room, but this takes the biscuit."
"We regret that today, some of you in this room didn't and cannot muster up the courage to call a spade a spade and to condemn Washington's actions," he said.
On nuclear safeguards, the Russian envoy criticized the silence of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, on Israel.
"Israel has not yet acceded to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty), so no comprehensive IAEA inspections of Israel are being implemented as for Iran. This is an outrageous, cynical situation."
"It's very strange that the IAEA chief did not say a word about this, nor did he call on Israel to join the NPT -- not once," he added.
