After weeks of escalating tension, US and Iranian officials faced each other Thursday, January 15, at the UN Security Council.<\/b>
\nUnited Nations: After weeks of escalating tension, US and Iranian officials faced each other Thursday, January 15, at the UN Security Council, where America\u2019s envoy renewed threats against the Islamic Republic despite President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to lower the temperature between the two adversaries.
The US was joined by Iranian dissidents in rebuking the government\u2019s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests that activists say has killed at least 2,637 people.
\u201cColleagues, let me be clear: President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations,\u201d Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN, said in a statement. \u201cHe 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.\u201d
Waltz\u2019s remarks came as the prospect of US retaliation for the protesters\u2019 deaths still hung over the region, though Trump signaled a possible de-escalation, saying the killing appeared to be ending. By Thursday, the protests challenging Iran\u2019s theocracy appeared increasingly smothered, but the state-ordered internet and communication blackout remained.
The US requested the emergency Security Council meeting and invited two Iranian dissidents, Masih Alinejad and Ahmad Batebi, to open the session with gruesome details of their experience as targets of the Islamic Republic.
In a stunning moment, Alinejad addressed the Iranian representative directly.
\u201cYou 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,\u201d she said while the Iranian official looked directly ahead, without acknowledging her.
In October, two purported Russian mobsters were each sentenced to 25 years behind bars for hiring a hit man to kill Alinejad at her New York home three years ago on behalf of the Iranian government.
Batebi described the deep cuts the prison guards in Iran would inflict on him before pouring salt on his wounds. \u201cIf you do not believe me, I can show you my body right now,\u201d he told the council.
Both dissidents called on the world body and the council to do more to hold Iran accountable for its human rights abuses. Batebi pleaded with Trump not to \u201cleave\u201d the Iranian people alone.
\u201cYou encouraged people to go into the streets. That was a good thing. But don\u2019t leave them alone,\u201d he said.
Before the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres spoke by phone for the first time since the deadly protests began last month. Iran\u2019s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that Araghchi implored the top UN official to live up to the \u201cserious expectation\u201d that Iran\u2019s government and its people have of the UN\u2019s role in condemning \u201cillegal US interventions against Iran.\u201d
Meanwhile, the US announced new sanctions on Iranian officials accused of suppressing the protests, which began late last month over the country\u2019s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency. The Group of Seven industrialized democracies and the European Union said they too were looking at new sanctions to ratchet up the pressure on Iran\u2019s theocratic government.
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