UN Security Council to meet today on Iran attack after Israel request
World
The meeting will take place at 4 pm ET (2000 GMT), according to a schedule released late on Saturday
(Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council is set to meet on Sunday after Israel requested the council condemn Iran's attack on Israel and designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
The meeting will take place at 4 pm ET (2000 GMT), according to a schedule released late on Saturday.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, requested the council hold an emergency meeting in a letter on Saturday to the council's president.
"The Iranian attack is a serious threat to global peace and security and I expect the Council to use every means to take concrete action against Iran," Erdan wrote in a post on X.
Biden pledges G7 response
President Joe Biden on Saturday condemned Iranian attacks on military facilities in Israel, pledged a coordinated G7 diplomatic response and said the United States had helped Israel take down "nearly all" of the attacking drones and missiles.
Biden, who cut short a trip to Delaware and returned to Washington earlier on Saturday to meet with advisers about the attack, said US forces and facilities had not been hit.
The president said he reiterated the ironclad U.S. support for Israel's security in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he has had strained relations over Israel's handling of the war in Gaza.
"I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks – sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel," Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
"Tomorrow, I will convene my fellow G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran's brazen attack," he said.
Biden said he had directed the US military to move aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week.
"Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles," he said.
Biden said his team would coordinate with counterparts across the region and stay in close touch with Israel's leaders.
"And while we have not seen attacks on our forces or facilities today, we will remain vigilant to all threats and will not hesitate to take all necessary action to protect our people," he said.
Iran launched explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel late on Saturday in its first direct attack on Israeli territory, a retaliatory strike that raised the threat of a wider regional conflict,
Tehran had vowed to retaliate for Israel's attack on Iran’s embassy compound last week in Damascus that killed a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas Quds Force and six other officers.
