Live protests in Iran: Trump envoy tells UN ‘all options on the table’

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Walz told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that the U.S. supports the “courageous people of Iran” and that President Donald Trump “has made clear that everything can be done to stop the carnage.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran, which has reportedly killed thousands in its crackdown on protests against clerical rule.

But on Thursday, Trump took a wait-and-see approach, saying he had been told the killings were easing and that he believed there were no current plans for mass executions.

Walz dismissed Iran’s accusations that the protests were a “foreign conspiracy to provide a precursor to military action.”

“Everyone in the world needs to know that the regime is weaker than ever and therefore this lie is being raised because of the power of the Iranian people in the streets. They are afraid. They are afraid of their own people,” Walz said.

Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Goram Hussein Darzi, said Iran does not seek escalation or confrontation and accused Walz of resorting to “lies, distortions and a deliberate disinformation campaign to conceal Iran’s direct involvement in turning unrest in Iran into violence.”

Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council that the Islamic Republic was behaving like the Islamic State militant group and “should be treated like the group.”

“This is how you save innocent lives,” she said, warning that Iran’s “brutal massacre” would get worse if the world did not take “serious action.”

Alinejad said that all Iranians are united in seeking freedom and that in the face of Iranian weapons, they want action, not “empty words and empty condemnations.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Walz said at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council convened by the United States that “the people of Iran are demanding freedom unprecedented in the brutal history of the Islamic Republic.”

He said the message from the United States is clear: “President Donald J. Trump and the United States of America stand behind the brave people of Iran.” Walz said, “President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we have seen at the United Nations.”

“He has made clear that all options to stop the carnage are on the table, and no one knows this better than the leadership of the Iranian regime.”

Walz dismissed Iran’s accusations that the protests were a “foreign conspiracy” and a precursor to military action, saying: “Everyone in the world needs to know that the regime is weaker than ever, and therefore this lie is being advanced because of the power of the Iranian people in the streets.”

“They’re scared,” he said. “They’re afraid of their own people.”

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council that Moscow stood with Iran and supported its view that “hostile external forces are trying to exploit the current situation to overthrow a government they find objectionable and destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran’s status as a sovereign and independent country.”

“Russia calls on the United States to “stop treating itself as a global judge and to cease its escalatory actions,” he said. ”

Moscow also called on the 193 United Nations member states to “prevent new large-scale escalations.”

Nebenzia said the U.S. action “risks plunging the region into even bloodier chaos – chaos that could easily spread beyond its borders.”

He appeared to blame the high death toll in a brutal crackdown by Iranian security forces on the protesters themselves, pointing to the use of guns, killings of civilians and law enforcement officers and arson attacks on medical facilities and public institutions.

Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Gholam Hussein Darzi, accused the United States of being “directly involved in turning unrest in Iran into violence.”

“Under the empty pretext of caring for the Iranian people and supporting human rights, the United States is trying to portray itself as a friend of the Iranian people, while laying the groundwork for political instability and military intervention under a so-called ‘humanitarian’ narrative,” Darzi said in a statement.

The Iranian official also accused the United States of violating human rights against protesters, including the recent killing of Renee Goode in Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

France’s ambassador to the United Nations, Irim Bonafon, said the international community must condemn the violence given the “scale and brutality” of the repression against protesters.

He reiterated France’s call for the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained and a moratorium on executions, and called for the speedy convening of a special session of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council to address the situation in Iran and investigate human rights violations.

British deputy ambassador Archibald Young condemned Iran’s actions “in the strongest possible terms” and praised “the courage of the Iranian people, particularly Iranian women.”

Britain told Iran’s foreign minister that “Iran must urgently change course” and respect the fundamental rights of Iranians, “including the right to protest without fear of violence or repression.

“If this is not done, the major industrialized countries of the Group of Seven, including the United Kingdom, have made it clear that they will impose additional sanctions,” Yang said. “The whole world is watching.”

New Zealand has “temporarily” closed its embassy in Tehran, Iran, and moved consular operations to Ankara, Turkey, Wellington officials said on Friday.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that all New Zealand diplomats had left Iran on commercial flights over the past day.

This comes after Foreign Minister Winston Peters spoke on Thursday, saying the Iranian government was “alarmed by the escalation of violence and repression in Iran.”

“We condemn the brutal repression by Iranian security forces, including the killing of protesters,” Peters posted on X.

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday reiterated official advice that New Zealanders should avoid traveling to Iran and “leave immediately” if they have been.

They said the New Zealand government’s ability to provide consular assistance to Iranian citizens was “extremely limited”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed the recent deadly protests and Iran’s demands for the United Nations to do more to condemn what they call foreign influence on the Islamic Republic in a phone call ahead of an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, according to a transcript of the call released by Iranian state television.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Araghchi implored senior U.N. officials to live up to the “serious expectations” of the Iranian government and its people for the U.N.’s role in condemning what officials called “unlawful U.S. interference in Iran.”

Masih Alinejad, one of the most outspoken Iranian dissidents in the United States, accused the United Nations and the Security Council of failing to “respond to the urgent demands of the day” at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.

In October, two alleged Russian gangsters were each sentenced to 25 years in prison for hiring hitmen on behalf of the Iranian government to assassinate Erin Judd in her Brooklyn home.

Alinejad, who came at the invitation of the United States and sat across the table from Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, said, “Members of this body have forgotten the privilege and responsibility of sitting in this room.”