Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani made the remarks in an X post on Thursday after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, urging the Security Council to act on the Gaza war.
Infuriated by Guterres’ move, Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen claimed that the UN chief was supporting the Palestinian Hamas resistance group and called for his resignation, charging that his tenure was “a danger to world peace.”
Kan’ani said the fact is that “the Zionist regime has been a real threat to global peace and security since its illegal establishment and that its true nature has become more obvious to the world after Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.”
He was referring to the historic operation that Hamas conducted on October 7 against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
“The Zionist regime showed that it does not give any credit to international mechanisms and institutions,” the Iranian diplomat said.
“Now more than ever, it (Israel) is a threat to global peace and security as well as the entire humanity. The world has a responsibility to deal with this global threat.”
In his letter to the Security Council, Guterres said the war had brought the humanitarian system in Gaza to the verge of collapse and risked “aggravating” threats to “international peace and security”.
He also called on the 15-member body to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and unite in a call for a full humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian resistance fighters.
In a statement to journalists along with the letter, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that this was the first time Guterres had felt compelled to invoke Article 99, since taking office in 2017.
He explained that the UN chief was taking the step “given the scale of the loss of human life … in such a short amount of time.”
Dujarric further described the use of Article 99 as a “dramatic constitutional move” that Guterres hoped would put more pressure on the Security Council - and the international community at large - to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
Since the start of the aggression against Gaza, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 16,248 Palestinians, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, and injured 43,616 others.
Some 7,600 people are also missing and assumed buried under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.
An estimated 1.9 million people – roughly three-quarters of the Gaza population – have been displaced due to the genocidal Israeli assault.