Iran calls for emergency UNSC meeting following Nasrallah assassination

United Nations: Amid escalating Lebanon crisis, Iran has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in protest against the assassination of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike in Beirut.

In a letter to the Security Council, Iranian Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani called on the 15-member body to “take immediate and decisive action to stop Israel’s ongoing aggression and prevent… from dragging the region into full-scale war.”

“Using US-supplied thousand-pound bunker busters,” he wrote, Israel killed Nasrallah and Iranian Gen, Abbas Nilforushan, among others.

He warned Israel not to attack any of its diplomatic or consular premises, or its representatives.

“Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent rights under international law to take every measure in defence of its vital national and security interests,” Iravani wrote.

Several world powers also warned of the assassination’s potential repercussions, as the spectre of all-out war looms over the Middle East.

United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of events in Beirut in the last 24 hours.”

Palestinian militant group Hamas called Nasrallah’s killing “a cowardly terrorist act.”

“We condemn in the strongest terms this barbaric Zionist aggression and targeting of residential buildings,” Hamas said in a statement.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas offered his “deep condolences” to Lebanon for the deaths of Nasrallah and civilians, who “fell as a result of the brutal Israeli aggression,” according to a statement from his office.

The foreign ministry of Iran said Nasrallah’s work will continue after his death. “His sacred goal will be realized in the liberation of Quds, God willing,” spokesman Nasser Kanani posted on X.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of public mourning.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on X that Lebanon was being subjected to a “genocide.”

In a post on X, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called the killing a “cowardly targeted assassination” that “seriously threatens regional and global peace and security, for which Israel bears full responsibility with the complicity of the United States.”

As expected, US leaders welcomed Nasrallah’s demise.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a post on X that he had spoken with the Lebanese premier. “We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire to bring an end to the bloodshed. A diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people,” he said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot demanded Israel “immediately stop its strikes in Lebanon” and said it was opposed to any ground operation in the country.