US ambassador says Iran is world No. 1 sponsor of terrorism
United Nations: The US ambassador to the United Nations called Iran the world's number one sponsor of terrorism on Thursday and warned Russia and China that they will become co-sponsors if they block a resolution to extend the UN arms embargo on Iran.
Ambassador Kelly Craft said the United States hopes Russia and China will not be co-sponsors of the number one state that sponsors terrorism and will see the importance of peace in the Middle East.
But she said the partnership between Russia and China, not only on backing Iran, is very clear. They're just going to be promoting chaos, conflict and mayhem outside their borders, so we have to just corner them.
Craft and Brian Hook, the top US envoy for Iran, briefed a group of reporters following Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's announcement Wednesday that the United States will call for a Security Council vote next week on a US-drafted resolution to extend indefinitely the arms embargo that is due to expire Oct. 18.
Hook announced hours later he is stepping down from the post.
The foreign ministers of Russia and China in separate letters to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council last month were sharply critical of the US effort, and gave every indication they would veto the resolution if it gets the minimum nine yes votes in the 15-member council, which appears unlikely.
If the vote fails, Pompeo suggested the US would invoke the snapback mechanism that would restore all UN sanctions on Iran.
Snapback was envisioned in the 2015 nuclear deal in the event Iran was proven to be in violation of the accord, under which it received billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Trump administration of unleashing a politically motivated campaign against Iran and called for universal condemnation of the US attempt to impose a permanent arms embargo on the Islamic Republic.
He said President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers and now has no legal right to try to use the UN resolution endorsing the deal to indefinitely continue the embargo.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the arms embargo should be lifted Oct. 18.
He also referred to the snapback provision, saying that since the US is no longer a party to the nuclear deal it has no right to demand the Security Council to activate the rapid reinstatement of sanctions mechanism.
The vote on the US-drafted resolution, which could come as early as Monday, and its expected defeat will set the stage for a potential crisis at the Security Council amid rising tensions in the Middle East and the US determination to maintain the UN arms embargo.
The five remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany are determined to maintain it, and are very concerned that extending the arms embargo would lead to Iran's exit from the agreement and its speeded-up pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Hook, the US envoy, said Iran has not been cooperating with the UN nuclear agency for a year and there isn't some acceptable level of non-compliance that we will accept out of fear that they'll do something worse. That is by definition nuclear blackmail, he said.
We just don't follow that playbook. Hook said Iran has been able to move a lot of weapons in the dark" to proxies in the Middle East despite the arms embargo so imagine what they will be able to accomplish in broad daylight.
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3 US troops killed, 5 seriously wounded during Iran attacks, military says
Washington (AP): Three American service members have been killed and five others seriously wounded during the US attacks on Iran, the military said Sunday, marking the first American casualties in a major offensive that has sparked retaliation from the Islamic Republic.
US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, announced the deaths in a post on X but did not say when and where they occurred. The statement said “several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions” and were going to return to duty.
Central Command described the situation “as fluid” and said it would withhold the identities of the service members who were killed for 24 hours after their families were notified.
The US military also denied Iranian claims that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was struck with ballistic missiles, saying on X that the “missiles launched didn't even come close.”
President Donald Trump had warned that American troops could be killed or injured in the operation.
“The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties,” the Republican president said in a video address released early Saturday. “That often happens in war. But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future.”
Following the US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other leaders, Iran's counterattacks have struck US bases in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever targeting Israeli and American military installations.
Before the strikes, Trump had built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades. The arrival of the Lincoln and three accompanying guided-missile destroyers at the end of January bolstered the number of warships in the region.
The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and four accompanying destroyers later were dispatched from the Caribbean Sea to head to the Middle East.
The Ford was part of the US raid in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges. The operation in January claimed no American lives but left seven US troops with gunshot wounds and shrapnel-related injuries.
One of those injured received the Medal of Honor during Trump's State of the Union address last week. Trump said Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover piloted the lead CH-47 Chinook helicopter that descended on the “heavily protected military fortress” where Maduro was staying.
Trump has launched several military operations during his second term, including strikes on members of the Islamic State group in Syria in retaliation for an ambush attack that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter in December.
The US military has also struck IS forces in Nigeria, after Trump accused the West African country's government of failing to rein in the targeting of Christians.
