UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 The\u00a0United Nations\u00a0chief condemned the\u00a0U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran\u00a0and called for an immediate return to negotiations “to pull the region, and our world, back from the brink.”<\/p>\n
Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday that everything must be done to prevent further escalation. “The alternative,” he warned, “is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”<\/p>\n
READ MORE: World leaders react cautiously to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran<\/a><\/p>\n Guterres also condemned Iran’s retaliatory attacks for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, speaking to reporters before the meeting, said it was “hypocrisy” to condemn the airstrikes. He said Iran is responsible for the actions of its proxies in the Middle East and for its nuclear and missile programs, and Israel and the U.S. acted “to prevent an irreversible and immediate threat.”<\/p>\n The attack on Iran killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah\u00a0Ali Khamenei, The Associated Press has reported. The assassination of the second leader of the Islamic Republic, who had no designated successor, raised the prospects of a protracted conflict given Iranian threats of retaliation. President Donald Trump on social media called his passing “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”<\/p>\n READ MORE: Russia condemns U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran as ‘preplanned and unprovoked act of armed aggression’<\/a><\/p>\n Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a letter to the secretary-general, accused the United States and Israel of “flagrantly” violating Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the U.N. Charter. He said Iran was exercising its right to self-defense under the charter in response.<\/p>\n He urged the council members “to take the necessary and immediate measures to halt this unlawful use of force and to ensure accountability.” And he called for an unequivocal condemnation of “this act of aggression \u2026 as it undoubtedly poses an unprecedented threat to regional as well as global peace and security.”<\/p>\n