After weeks of tension, US and Iranian officials faced off on Thursday at the UN Security Council, where the US envoy renewed threats against the Islamic Republic despite US President Donald Trump’s efforts to lower the temperature between the two enemies.
The United States was joined by Iranian opponents in condemning the government’s bloody crackdown on protests across the country that activists say have killed at least 2,637 people.
“My colleagues, let me be clear: President Trump is a man of action, not an endless talk like we see at the United Nations,” said Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, in a statement. “He has made it clear that all means are on the table to stop the massacre. And no one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime.”
Waltz’s comments come as the prospect of US retaliation for the deaths of protesters remains in the region, although Trump has signaled it may be easing, saying the killings appear to be ending. On Thursday, protests challenging Iran’s democracy appeared to be escalating, but government-ordered internet and communications shutdowns remained in place.
The US requested an urgent meeting of the Security Council and invited two Iranian dissidents, Masih Alinejad and Ahmad Batebi, to open the session with the horrific details of their experiences as targets of the Islamic Republic.
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In an amazing moment, Alinejad spoke directly to the Iranian representative.
“He tried to kill me three times. I saw the killer myself in front of my garden, in my house in Brooklyn,” he said as the Iranian official looked forward, without acknowledging.
In October, two Russian gangsters were reportedly sentenced to 25 years each for hiring a battered man to kill Alinejad in her New York home three years ago on behalf of the Iranian government.
Batebi described how Iranian prison guards would torture him before pouring salt into his wounds. “If you don’t believe me, I can show you my body right now,” he told the council.
Both opponents called on the world body and the council to do more to hold Iran accountable for its human rights abuses. Batebi urged Trump not to “leave” the Iranian people alone.
“He encouraged people to take to the streets. That was a good thing, but don’t leave them alone,” he said.
Ahead of the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke by phone for the first time since deadly protests began last month. Iran’s official Tasnim news agency reported that Araghchi urged the top UN official to fulfill the “high expectations” of the Iranian government and its people for the UN’s role in condemning the “illegal US intervention against Iran.”
Meanwhile, the United States has announced new sanctions on Iranian officials accused of suppressing protests, which began late last month due to the country’s economic instability and the collapse of its currency. The Group of Seven Industrialized Democracies and the European Union said they were also considering new sanctions to increase pressure on Iran’s theocratic government.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
