Drones struck the United Arab Emirates on May 17, targeting the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant. Fortunately, no serious damage was inflicted. The United Arab Emirates reported that the drones originated in Iraq, likely launched by Iranian-backed militias. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz condemned “Iran’s outrageous and unacceptable attacks in the strongest possible terms.”
The UN Security Council’s efforts should be focused on reigning in Iran, he added.
As a result of Operation Epic Fury, Iran’s dictatorship is in shambles. The U.S. Treasury Department has enacted new sanctions; these are in addition to the snapback sanctions that are already in place. Iran is running out of money, and their economy is in shambles. “But rather than embrace some peaceful new approach,” warned Ambassador Waltz, “the Iranian military is engaging in repeated and reckless attacks, now on civilian power infrastructure. And clings to a nuclear weapons strategy that risks plunging the world into darkness. We cannot tolerate it; we will not tolerate it.”
The United States will continue to fight in the Security Council, and in every appropriate diplomatic forum for Iran to abide by its international obligations, said Ambassador Waltz. “We have introduced ... an additional resolution focused on those violations of basic freedoms of navigation that the entire world’s economies depend upon.”
“This attack is only the latest example of the dangerous and destabilizing activities that have come to define this [Iranian] regime,” said Ambassador Waltz. “And it is time for every nation - everyone in this Council - to call out this behavior.”
The Iranian regime has threatened global peace for 47 years, he noted. “From the Houthis, to Hezbollah, to Hamas, to the militias in Iraq and has brought nothing but misery and bloodshed in the Middle East and beyond.”
Ambassador Waltz urged fellow Security Council member states to put an end to threat posed by Iran. “So, we will continue to condemn Iran’s actions, we will demand it cease its attacks. I hope and pray this Council will act. The greatest irony here is that as the Iranians recklessly sought to produce nuclear weapons, the U.S. took actions to stop it, and now out of sheer desperation and true recklessness, they’re now weaponizing the peaceful nuclear power of a neighbor.”
This is precisely why the United States remains committed to Iran never getting a nuclear bomb.