Iran FM to UN chief: Anti-Israeli military operation could have been wider in scope

Amirabdollahian made the remarks in a telephone conversation with the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday.

The top diplomat was referring to the Islamic Republic’s Saturday reprisal against the Israeli regime’s deadly attack of April 1 against the country’s diplomatic premises in the Syrian capital Damascus.

“Although, the Islamic Republic was capable of conducting this operation across a wider radius, it just targeted parts of the Zionist regime’s positions, from which the [Israeli] attack against our country’s Embassy in Damascus had taken place,” the foreign minister said.

The retaliation, he added, fitted within the country’s right to legitimate defense and the international law.

Due to the UN Security Council’s refusal to condemn the attack, the Islamic Republic was left with no option but to resort to the defensive operation and punish the Zionist regime, he stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the foreign minister pointed to the Israeli regime’s genocidal war against the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7 last year following Operation al-Aqsa Storm by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

“The United States and its allies refuse to stop the regime,” he noted, and denounced the international community’s failure to put an end to the genocide.

The Iranian official welcomed the United Nations’ efforts towards cessation of the warfare and transfer of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.

For his part, Guterres pointed to Iran’s retaliation against the Israeli regime, advising parties to regional conflicts to exercise restraint.

The UN chief noted how he had condemned acts of violation targeting diplomatic premises on several occasions.

He expressed delight in Iran’s current refusal to take additional measures against the occupying regime, advising Tel Aviv to refrain from committing fresh aggression against the Islamic Republic.