Donald Trump (AP image)

Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, has formally written to the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemning the “reckless and inflammatory threats” made by US President Donald Trump. Tehran also warned that the United States would bear full responsibility for any consequences or escalation that might arise from such statements.In the letter dated January 2, Iran accused the US president of openly threatening the use of force against a sovereign UN member state, asserting that such remarks amounted to a clear violation of international law and the UN Charter.

Drawing attention to Trump’s recent comments, the Iranian envoy said the US president had gone beyond rhetoric by publicly declaring: “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.” Iravani said the statement amounted to “the incitement of violence, unrest, and terrorist acts within Iran” and constituted “a clear, explicit, and unlawful threat of the use of force against a sovereign State.”Trump’s remarks came amid widening protests in Iran over economic hardship, soaring inflation and a sharp fall in the national currency. In a post on Truth Social, the US president warned Iranian authorities against killing protesters, saying the United States would “come to their rescue” if peaceful demonstrators were harmed, before adding that Washington was “locked and loaded.”

"Only days earlier, the President of the United States publicly threatened the Islamic Republic of Iran with the use of force, including renewed military attacks against Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities and its defensive capabilities. These repeated and deliberate statements demonstrate a consistent pattern of unlawful conduct by the United States and constitute a clear, explicit, and unlawful threat of the use of force against a sovereign State, as well as interference in its internal affairs," the letter read.

Iravani stressed that international law strictly prohibits such threats, regardless of political justification. “Such threats, irrespective of political pretexts or rhetorical framing, are strictly prohibited under international law,” the letter said, citing Articles 2(1), 2(4) and 2(7) of the UN Charter.The letter also accused Washington of encouraging unrest as a pretext for pressure or intervention, calling it “a grave violation of Iran’s sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity.”

It added that the encouragement or facilitation of violent activity within another state constituted “an internationally wrongful act.”Placing the current tensions in historical context, the Iranian envoy pointed to what he described as a long record of US intervention, including the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war, the 1988 shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655, the killing of Major General Qassem Soleimani and the imposition of decades-long sanctions.He also referred to joint US-Israeli attacks in June 2025, which he said targeted civilians, infrastructure, and peaceful nuclear facilities.Calling on the UN to act, Iran urged the Security Council “to unequivocally and strongly condemn these reckless and provocative statements” and to demand that the United States “cease all threats or uses of force” and comply with its obligations under international law.The letter concluded with a direct warning, stating: “The Islamic Republic of Iran unequivocally rejects and strongly condemns these reckless, interventionist, and inflammatory statements, and reaffirms its inherent right to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security.” Iranian officials have strongly rejected the warning. Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi described Trump’s comments as “reckless and dangerous”. Araghchi said that the protests were largely peaceful and driven by economic pressure and warned that any interference in Iran’s internal affairs would be firmly rejected. Other senior figures have also cautioned that foreign intervention would cross Iran’s security “red lines” and risk wider regional instability.The current protests are the most widespread since the 2022 unrest that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. Amini, a young woman, had been accused by Iran’s morality police of not wearing her veil properly.