Security Council Members Call for an End to the Fighting and a Return to Serious and Sustained Negotiations on Iran’s Nuclear Program

International Voice- New York / June 22, 2025

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities represents a dangerous turning point that could drag the region into an unbearable cycle of mutual retaliation and suffering. He called for an immediate halt to the escalation and a return to serious negotiations that ensure respect for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, stressing that “peace cannot be imposed; it must be chosen.”

António Guterres emphasized that the people of the region cannot endure another cycle of destruction. His remarks came during an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council held on Sunday afternoon following the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.

At the beginning of the meeting, Guterres said that since the start of the crisis, he had repeatedly condemned any military escalation in the Middle East, noting that his appeal before the Security Council just two days earlier to give peace a chance “was not heeded.”

He called for decisive and immediate action to stop the fighting and return to “serious and sustained negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program.” He stressed the need for a credible, comprehensive and verifiable solution that would restore confidence, including providing full access to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is a cornerstone of international peace and security. Iran must fully respect it,” he added.

The Secretary-General said that all Member States must act in accordance with their obligations under the United Nations Charter and other rules of international law.

He added: “We face a stark choice. One path leads to a wider war, deeper human suffering, and serious damage to the international order. The other leads to de-escalation, diplomacy and dialogue. We know which path is right.”

Further Instability and Volatility

Miroslav Jenča, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, said the latest developments must be viewed with the utmost seriousness and represent “a dangerous escalation in a conflict that has already devastated many lives” in both Israel and Iran.

According to Iran’s Ministry of Health, 430 people had been killed and more than 3,500 others injured in Israeli strikes as of Saturday, most of them civilians, across Iran. Israeli authorities, meanwhile, reported that 25 Israelis had been killed and 1,300 others injured since the clashes with Iran began.

Jenča warned that the conflict “risks plunging the region into further instability and volatility,” as some non-state armed groups aligned with Iran had warned against U.S. intervention, while the Iranian parliament had expressed support for closing the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Middle East cannot withstand another violent conflict in which civilians pay the price of military confrontations, nor will the world escape the repercussions of this dangerous conflict,” he said.

He called on all states to fulfill their obligations to settle international disputes by peaceful means and to meet their nuclear commitments.

“There is no military solution to this conflict. We need diplomacy, de-escalation and confidence-building now,” he added.

International Atomic Energy Agency

For his part, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said that the nuclear non-proliferation regime—which has formed the foundation of international security for more than half a century—is “at stake.”

He said there was an opportunity for diplomacy, warning that if that window closed, “violence and destruction could reach unimaginable levels.”

Grossi stressed that any agreement ultimately reached would require verification of the facts on the ground, something that could only be achieved through IAEA inspections.

He said IAEA inspectors were present in Iran and required a cessation of hostilities “so that Iran can allow the teams to enter the sites under the necessary safety and security conditions.”

He also said Iran could take special measures to protect its nuclear materials and equipment in accordance with its obligations to the Agency.

Commenting on the situation on the ground, Grossi said craters were visible at Fordow, the main site where Iran enriches uranium to 60 percent.

“At this time, no one, including the IAEA, is in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordow,” he said.

He noted that Iran had informed the Agency that there had been no increase in radiation levels outside the three sites that were bombed.

The IAEA, he added, continued to monitor the situation and encouraged the Iranian regulatory authority to maintain its “indispensable” contact with the Agency’s Incident and Emergency Centre.

Grossi reiterated his position that armed attacks should never be carried out against nuclear facilities, as they could result in radioactive releases with severe consequences “within and beyond the borders of the state which has been attacked.”

He said the Agency could immediately deploy nuclear safety and security experts to Iran, with the support of the Security Council, in addition to the safeguards inspectors already on the ground, adding that the IAEA stood ready to play its role in bringing the military confrontation to an end.

United States

U.S. Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dorothy Shea said that the U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities were intended to dismantle Iran’s uranium enrichment capability and halt what she described as the “nuclear threat posed by the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.”

She said the operation “sought to eliminate a longstanding but rapidly escalating source of global insecurity, and to assist our ally Israel in our inherent right of collective self-defense, consistent with the UN Charter.”

She said that for 40 years the Iranian government had called for “death to America” and “death to Israel” and had posed a persistent threat to the peace and security of its neighbors, the United States and the entire world.

She also said Iran had attacked Israel with hundreds of ballistic missiles and through what she described as terrorist proxies, adding that Iran had for decades been responsible for extensive suffering and deaths throughout the Middle East.

She further said that the Iranian government and its proxies had killed many Americans, including U.S. service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that Iranian officials had intensified their threats and hostile rhetoric in recent weeks.

“Iran has long worked to conceal its nuclear program and obstructed good-faith efforts in recent negotiations,” she said.

Iran

Iran’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “internationally wanted war criminal,” saying that Netanyahu had “succeeded in hijacking U.S. foreign policy, dragging it into another costly and baseless war.”

He said that “the United States—the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons—has once again resorted to unlawful force against my country under a fabricated and absurd pretext: to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. What a bitter and tragic irony.”

The Iranian ambassador said the Israeli and U.S. attacks against his country “did not occur in a vacuum,” but were the direct result of what he described as “illegal and politically motivated actions taken by the United States and its European partners—the United Kingdom, France and Germany—as well as the biased conduct of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

Iravani said the diplomatic process in which his country had participated “was nothing more than a deception designed to mislead the international community.”

He added that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty had been “manipulated” and turned into a political weapon, “exploited as a pretext for aggression and illegal actions that endanger the supreme interests of my country.”

The Iranian ambassador said the “selective conduct and double standards of the IAEA Board of Governors and the Security Council” would permanently damage the credibility of those international bodies.

“With such blatant bias, there is no guarantee that other members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty will not face similar aggression,” he said.

He added that if the Council failed to act and condemn what he called the “blatant aggression” against his country, “the stain of complicity will remain forever on its conscience, as is the case with Gaza.”

Israel

Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Danny Danon, said that the United States had, the previous night, removed “the greatest existential threat facing the free world.”

“Just like our Operation Rising Lion, this was not a war of choice; it was a necessity. This was the right thing for the United States, for Israel, for the Middle East, and for the world,” he said.

Danon said the entire world should therefore thank the United States and President Donald Trump for removing what he described as “the greatest threat to global security.”