UN Security Council holds emergency meeting on deadly protests in Iran
Members of the influential 15-member UN body heard from Iran’s deputy UN representative, who warned at the meeting on Thursday that Iranians did not seek a confrontation but would respond to US aggression, and accused Washington of “direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran”.
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UN Security Council holds emergency meeting on deadly protests in Iran
Iranian and US officials traded barbs at UN Security Council meeting on deadly protests in Iran and amid threats of attack by Washington.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 15: Gholamhossein Darzi, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN, speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Iran at the United Nations headquarters on January 15, 2026 in New York City. The Security Council held an emergency meeting that was requested by the United States. People in Iran have been protesting for the past two weeks challenging the country’s authoritarian clerical rulers. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Michael M. Santiago / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
Gholamhossein Darzi, ambassador and deputy permanent representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN, speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Thursday in New York City, US [Michael M Santiago/Getty Images via AFP]
By
Lyndal Rowlands
Published On 16 Jan 2026
16 Jan 2026
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The United Nations Security Council has held an emergency meeting to discuss deadly protests in Iran amid threats by United States President Donald Trump to intervene militarily in the country.
Members of the influential 15-member UN body heard from Iran’s deputy UN representative, who warned at the meeting on Thursday that Iranians did not seek a confrontation but would respond to US aggression, and accused Washington of “direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran”.
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US representative Mike Waltz used his prepared remarks at the meeting to criticise the Iranian government’s response to the protests, noting that the ongoing internet blackout in Iran made it hard to verify the true extent of the crackdown by authorities there.
“The people of Iran are demanding their freedom like never before in the Islamic Republic’s brutal history,” Waltz said, adding that Iran’s claims that the protests were “a foreign plot to give a precursor to military action” were a sign that its government was “afraid of their own people”.
Waltz did not refer to the threats of military intervention in Iran that Trump has repeatedly made over the past week, before the president appeared to ease his escalating rhetoric over the past day.
Iran’s deputy UN envoy Gholamhossein Darzi told the council that his country “seeks neither escalation nor confrontation”.
“However, any act of aggression, direct or indirect, will be met with a decisive, proportionate, and lawful response under Article 51 of the UN Charter,” Darzi said.
“This is not a threat; it is a statement of legal reality. Responsibility for all consequences will rest solely with those who initiate such unlawful acts,” he said.
UN Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee briefed the council, saying that the “popular protests” in Iran “have rapidly evolved into nationwide upheaval, resulting in significant loss of life” since beginning close to three weeks ago.
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