UN Security Council to meet on Iran as Russia, China push for a ceasefire
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UN to meet on Iran as China, Russia push for ceasefire
UN to meet on Iran as China, Russia and Pakistan push for ceasefire. Security Council will meet on US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. Resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The Security Council will meet on US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. File photo: Reuters
The United Nations Security Council will meet Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, as China, Russia and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote.
The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening.
A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel’s assault against its Middle East rival in a significant new escalation of conflict in the region.
Iran requested the UN Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms”.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the US and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place”. (Reuters)
Live updates: Trump orders US bombing of Iran nuclear sites; world awaits response from Tehran
The US appears to have held back its most powerful bombs against one of the three facilities. The damage to the Isfahan facility appears to be restricted to above-ground structures. The entire stockpile of 60% uranium is believed to be still in the underground tunnels, sources say. The US also struck the Fordow facility with 12 Tomahawk cruise missiles, an official says. The strikes were meant to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
In Isfahan, where nearly 60% of Iran’s stockpile of already-enriched nuclear material is believed to be stored underground, according to a US official, a US submarine hit the site with Tomahawk cruise missiles, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine said Sunday.
But unlike the other two Iranian facilities targeted in the operation, B-2 bombers did not drop massive “bunker-buster” bombs on the Isfahan facility, multiple sources told CNN. The damage to the facility appears to be restricted to aboveground structures, according to Jeffrey Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who has closely reviewed commercial satellite imagery of the strike sites.
Even if the US was successful in destroying Iran’s facility at Fordow — another underground site that housed centrifuges needed to enrich uranium, which the US hit with 12 bunker busters — the obvious survival of Isfahan has raised questions about whether Trump achieved his stated goal of “a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror.”
“This is an incomplete strike,” Lewis said. “If this is all there is, here’s what left: the entire stockpile of 60% uranium, which was stored at Isfahan in tunnels that are untouched.”
Multiple sources familiar with the latest US intelligence on both sites and the Trump administration’s objectives in launching the strikes told CNN that Isfahan’s underground facilities — which likely remain intact — must be addressed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Read more about the early assessments here.
UN Security Council meets on Iran as Russia, China push for a ceasefire
Russia, China and Pakistan propose a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East. The world awaited Iran’s response on June 22 after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated’ Tehran’s key nuclear sites. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass. The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel. It is not immediately clear when the council could vote on the draftresolution. The vote is expected to take place on June 23, with the resolution expected to be approved by the end of the day. The resolution will be presented to the UN Security Council on June 24, with a vote expected on June 25.
UNITED NATIONS – The US Security Council met on June 22 to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on June 22.
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear programme.”
The world awaited Iran’s response on June 22 after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
Russia and China condemned the US strikes.
“Peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved by the use of force. Dialogue and negotiation are the fundamental way out at present, said China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong. “Diplomatic means to address the Iranian nuclear issue haven’t been exhausted, and there’s still hope for a peaceful solution.”
But acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the council that the time had come for Washington to act decisively, urging the Security Council to call upon Iran to end its effort to eradicate Israel and terminate its drive for nuclear weapons.
“Iran long obfuscated its nuclear weapons programme and stonewalled our good-faith efforts in recent negotiations,” she said. “The Iranian regime cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
US ambassador to the United Nations Dorothy Shea addresses delegates during the meeting of the United Nations Security Council. PHOTO: REUTERS
‘US Fairytales’
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia recalled former US Secretary of State Colin Powell making the case at the UN Security Council in 2003 that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of the country’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
“Again we’re being asked to believe the US’s fairy tales, to once again inflict suffering on millions of people living in the Middle East. This cements our conviction that history has taught our US colleagues nothing,” he said.
Iran requested the UN Security Council meeting, calling on it “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
It was not immediately clear when the council could vote on the draft resolution. Russia, China and Pakistan have asked council members to share their comments by the evening of June 23. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on June 22 that the US and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Mr Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the US strikes.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Mr Grossi told the Security Council that entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Mr Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency. REUTERS
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World awaits Iranian response after US hits nuclear sites
Iran and Israel continue to trade volleys of missile attacks. Law enforcement in major U.S. cities step up patrols. Air France KLM says it has cancelled flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh. Iran’s parliament approved a move to close the Strait of Hormuz, impacting global oil shipments. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the U.K.-led strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites on June 14. The strikes are the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution and the first by the United States since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The United States has called on Iran to forgo any retaliation, saying the government “must now make peace” or “future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier” and urged Iran to stop its nuclear programme. The Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses to the attacks, including closing the strait.
Companies Iran vows retaliation, fires missiles at Israel
US Department of Homeland Security warns of heightened threat
Iran considers closing Strait of Hormuz, impacting global oil shipments
US and Israel differ on war aims, regime change not US goal
ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM, June 22 (Reuters) – The world braced on Sunday for Iran’s response after the U.S. attacked key Iranian nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
day after the U.S. sent 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs crashing into the mountain above Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, Tehran vowed to defend itself at all costs, American leaders urged Tehran to stand down, and pockets of anti-war protesters began taking to the streets in U.S. cities.
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In a post to the Truth Social platform on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the issue of regime change in Iran. “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!” he wrote.
Iran and Israel continued to trade volleys of missile attacks, with an explosion in western Iran claiming the lives of half a dozen military personnel, according to an Iranian media outlet. Earlier, Iran fired missiles that wounded scores of people and flattened buildings in Tel Aviv.
The U.S. State Department ordered employees’ family members to leave Lebanon and advised citizens elsewhere in the region to keep a low profile or restrict travel.
An advisory from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned of a “heightened threat environment in the United States.” Law enforcement in major U.S. cities stepped up patrols and deployed additional resources to religious, cultural and diplomatic sites.
Air France KLM said it has cancelled flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh on Sunday and Monday, in a sign of the broader effects of the attacks.
Tehran has so far not followed through on its threats of retaliation against the United States – either by targeting U.S. bases or trying to choke off global oil supplies – but that may not hold.
Speaking in Istanbul, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses. There would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated, he said.
“The U.S. showed they have no respect for international law. They only understand the language of threat and force,” he said.
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on X that the initiative was “now with the side that plays smart, avoids blind strikes. Surprises will continue!”
Trump , in a televised address, called the strikes “a spectacular military success” and boasted that Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities had been “completely and totally obliterated.”
But his own officials gave more nuanced assessments and – with the exception of satellite photographs appearing to show craters on the mountain above Iran’s subterranean plant at Fordow – there has been no public accounting of the damage.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the U.S. strikes.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN that it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim.
Trump, who veered between offering to end the war with diplomacy or to join it before ultimately moving ahead with the biggest foreign policy gamble of his career, called on Iran to forgo any retaliation. He said the government “must now make peace” or “future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.”
.S. Vice President JD Vance said Washington was not at war with Iran but with its nuclear programme, adding this had been pushed back by a very long time due to the U.S. intervention.
In a step towards what is widely seen as Iran’s most effective threat to hurt the West, its parliament approved a move to close the Strait of Hormuz . Nearly a quarter of global oil shipments pass through the narrow waters that Iran shares with Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s Press TV said closing the strait would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Khamenei.
Item 1 of 14 People attend a protest against the U.S attack on nuclear sites, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Tehran, Iran, June 22, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS [1/14] People attend a protest against the U.S attack on nuclear sites, amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Tehran, Iran, June 22, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
Attempting to choke off Gulf oil by closing the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite almost certain conflict with the U.S. Navy’s massive Fifth Fleet, based in the Gulf and tasked with keeping the strait open.
Security experts have long warned a weakened Iran could also find other unconventional ways to strike back, such as bombings or cyberattacks.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” warned Iran against retaliation for the U.S. strikes.
Rubio separately told CBS’s “Face the Nation” talk show that the U.S. has “other targets we can hit, but we achieved our objective.”
“There are no planned military operations right now against Iran,” he later added, “unless they mess around.”
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier that the U.S. bombings in Iran marked a perilous turn in the region and urged a halt to fighting and return to negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
DIVERGING WAR AIMS
Israeli officials, who began the hostilities with a surprise attack on Iran on June 13, have increasingly spoken of their ambition to topple the hardline Shi’ite Muslim clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli reporters that Israel was very close to meeting its goals of removing the threats of ballistic missiles and the nuclear program in Iran.
U.S. officials, many of whom witnessed Republican President George W. Bush’s popularity collapse following his disastrous intervention in Iraq in 2003, have stressed that they were not working to overthrow Iran’s government.
“This mission was not and has not been about regime change,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon. “The president authorised a precision operation to neutralise the threats to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear programme.”
Anti-war activists organized demonstrations on Sunday in New York, Washington and other U.S. cities, with protesters carrying signs that read “hands off Iran”.
Meanwhile, Iranians contacted by Reuters described their fear at the prospect of an enlarged conflict involving the U.S.
“Our future is dark. We have nowhere to go – it’s like living in a horror movie,” Bita, 36, a teacher from the central city of Kashan, said before the phone line was cut.
Much of Tehran, a capital city of 10 million people, has emptied out, with residents fleeing to the countryside to escape Israeli bombardment.
Iranian authorities say more than 400 people have been killed since Israel’s attacks began, mostly civilians. Israel’s bombardment has scythed through much of Iran’s military leadership with strikes targeted at bases and residential buildings where senior figures slept.
Iran has been launching missiles back at Israel, killing at least 24 people over the past nine days.
Air raid sirens sounded across most of Israel on Sunday, sending millions of people to safe rooms.
In Tel Aviv, Aviad Chernovsky, 40, emerged from a bomb shelter to find his house had been destroyed in a direct hit. “It’s not easy to live now in Israel (right now), but we are very strong. We know that we will win,” he said.
Reporting by Reuters; writing by William Mallard, Angus McDowall, Peter Graff, Raphael Satter and Ted Hesson; editing by Sonali Paul, Mark Heinrich, Nia Williams and Diane Craft
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Iran Israel war news LIVE updates: Iran’s nuclear site damaged but full impact unclear, says Netanyahu
The death toll from the conflict has now crossed 400 in Iran. In Israel, over 3,500 people have been injured due to strikes and attacks. In response, Iran has launched several drone attacks against Israel. Israel has thanked the U.S. for making the Middle East a “safer place” for its strikes on Iran.
Iran Israel war news LIVE updates: As the Israel-Iran conflict rages on, the United States has now joined in on strikes against Iran and targeted three nuclear sites in the region. Speaking at the White House, Trump called the strikes a “spectacular success” and warned of “greater force” if Iran chooses to retaliate. As per the US president, the nuclear sites of Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow were targeted….Read More
Israel thanked Trump and the US for making the Middle East a “safer place” after its strikes against Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu further stated that Israel was informed in advance of the US’ strikes on Iran. In response to the US attack, Iran launched a barrage of missiles towards Israel, which have injured several people across the state.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the conflict has now crossed 400 in Iran, with the Iranian health ministry reporting 430 deaths. Health officials have further stated that over 3,500 people have been injured due to Israeli strikes and attacks in the region. In Israel, authorities have reported at least 24 deaths since the escalation of the conflict last week.
The conflict between Israel and Iran escalated after Israel’s military strikes under ‘Operation Rising Lion’, which targeted Iranian nuclear and military sites. In response, Iran has launched several drone attacks against Israel and continues to do so as the conflict enters its second week.
Iran Israel war | Latest developments here –