US warns Iran that ‘all options are on the table’ in emergency UN meeting

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — After weeks of escalating tension, United States and Iranian officials faced each other Thursday at the UN Security Council, where America’s envoy renewed threats against the Islamic Republic despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to lower the temperature between the two adversaries.

The US was joined by Iranian dissidents in rebuking the government’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests that activists say have killed at least 2,677 people.

“Colleagues, let me be clear: President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations,” Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN, told the council. “He has made it clear that 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’s remarks came as the prospect of US retaliation for the protesters’ deaths still hung over the region, though Trump signalled a possible de-escalation, saying the killing appeared to be ending.

By Thursday, the protests challenging Iran’s theocracy appeared increasingly smothered, but the state-ordered internet and communication blackout remained.

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One diplomat told The Associated Press that top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar spent the last 48 hours raising concerns with Trump that a US military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region.

During the meeting, Hossein Darzi, the deputy Iranian ambassador to the UN, blasted the US for what he claimed was America’s “direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran to violence.”

“Under the hollow pretext of concern for the Iranian people and claims of support for human rights, the United States 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.

The US requested the emergency Security Council meeting and invited two Iranian dissidents, Masih Alinejad and Ahmad Batebi, to describe their experience as targets of the Islamic Republic.

In a stunning moment, Alinejad addressed the Iranian representative directly.

“You have tried to kill me three times. I have seen my would-be assassin with my own eyes in front of my garden, in my home in Brooklyn,” she said while the Iranian official looked directly ahead, without acknowledging her.