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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz warned Iran during an emergency meeting of the Security Council that President Donald Trump “is a man of action” who has “made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter.”
Waltz said Thursday that, “We all have a responsibility to support the Iranian people and to put an end to the regime’s neglect and oppression of the Iranian nation.”
Iran has been plunged into turmoil amid recent anti-government protests, with the death toll from those being at least 2,677, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency told The Associated Press.
“Colleagues, let me be clear. President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations. He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter. And no one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime,” Waltz added.
Waltz’s remarks came as Gholam Hossein Darzi, the deputy Iranian ambassador to the U.N., accused the U.S. of trying to destabilize the Islamic Republic.
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“Under the hollow pretext of concern for the Iranian people and claims of support for human rights, the United States regime is attempting to portray itself as a friend of the Iranian people, while simultaneously laying the groundwork for political destabilization and military intervention under a so-called humanitarian narrative,” Darzi said.
Waltz dismissed the claim, telling diplomats at U.N. headquarters on Thursday that Iran’s leaders are “afraid of their own people.”
“I would like to address the allegation put forward by the regime that these inspired protests are somehow a foreign plot to give a precursor to military action. Everyone in the world needs to know that the regime is weaker than ever before, and therefore is putting forward this lie because of the power of the Iranian people in the streets,” Waltz said.
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“They are afraid. They’re afraid of their own people. Iran says it’s ready for dialogue, but its actions say otherwise. This is a regime that rules through oppression, through violence, and through intimidation, and has destabilized the Middle East for decades. Well, enough is enough,” he added.
“The regime’s dereliction of duty to its own citizens is what has put the ayatollahs in the positions they are in today with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, protesting in the streets after decades of neglect and abuse. So everyone should ask themselves, everyone sitting here today, how many people are dead?” Waltz also said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Trump and his team “have communicated to the Iranian regime that if the killing continues, there will be grave consequences.”
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“And the president received a message as he revealed to all of you and the whole world yesterday, that the killing and the executions will stop. And the president understands today that 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday were halted. And so the president and his team are closely monitoring this situation, and all options remain on the table for the president,” she added.
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