Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Zahra Ershadi made the remarks at a UN Security Council meeting entitled to addressing the issue of naval security on Monday.
“Such accusations can, in no way, cover up the Israeli regime’s [own] acts of terrorism against commercial naval navigation. Over less than two years, the regime [itself] has attacked more than 10 commercial vessels carrying oil or humanitarian goods in regional waters,” she said.
The remarks came after the regime accused the Islamic Republic of an attack on an Israeli oil tanker off the coast of Oman without providing any evidence in support of the claim. Its traditional allies, the United States and the UK, however, strongly backed up its accusations.
Ershadi called the comments that had been made on the part of American and British officials in support of the Israeli claim “unfounded accusations” and “remarks that had been made based on political ill will.”
“These accusations are repetition of the Israeli regime’s factitious claims,” she said, adding, “There are no verifiable and definite evidence that could substantiate them.”
‘Justifying extra-regional presence’
She reminded that it was the very American and British military interference in the region that had constantly acted as the source insecurity and instability here.
The false news and sham propogandist operations such as the one that had targeted Iran was seeking to justify either the unacceptable extra-regional presence or potential attacks on regional countries, noted the diplomat.
“What they are seeking to depict as definite evidence [of Iran’s alleged involvement in the attack on the tanker] is just a couple of pictures that do not prove anything,” Ershadi stated.
She, meanwhile, pointed to a subsequent accusation that had alleged that the attack on the Israeli tanker had originated from Yemen.
The latter accusation was used towards supposedly explaining a special forces’ deployment by the UK to Yemen. The deployment allegedly sought to target the “terrorists,” who had been “responsible” for the attack on the Israeli vessel.
The Iranian official condemned both the deployment and the accusation used towards explaining it.
She also said such actions showed that the UK and others had not yet “learned from their defeat in invading Yemen.”
She was referring to the Western allies’ support for a 2015-present Saudi-led war on the Arab nation. The war has stopped short of all of its goals, including bringing the Yemeni people to their knees.
Ershadi also called on the Security Council to end its “age-old inaction” in the face of the Israeli regime’s criminal activities, and stand up to the countries that had been trying to protect it in the face of the world body.