Iran's foreign minister has defended the country's missile and drone attacks on Israel as "legitimate defence under international law" in remarks to the United Nations Security Council in New York on Thursday.
Hossein Amirabdollahian cited the suspected Israeli airstrike on Iran's embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1 as the reason for the retaliatory attacks and criticized the United States, the United Kingdom and France for failing to condemn the Israeli strike.
Amirabdollahian described the attacks on Israel as "absolutely necessary" in the face of "an attack on the embassy and inviolable sovereignty" of the country. He said the Islamic Republic of Iran had run out of patience due to the "continued inaction of the Security Council."
He said the targets of Iran's missile attacks on Israel were military targets that allegedly played a role in the Israeli strike on the embassy compound in Damascus. Two Iranian generals were among those killed in the strike.
Over the weekend, Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and rockets. Israeli air defences and allied forces were able to intercept almost all of the weapons.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders have vowed to respond,, despite calls from allies to avoid escalation, and threatened to hit Iran's military facilities, prompting fears the conflict could turn into an all-out war.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, meanwhile, called for "maximum restraint" in the Middle East, warning that the entire region is "on the precipice" of a catastrophic war.
"Recent days have seen a perilous escalation – in words and deeds," Guterres said. "One miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake, could lead to the unthinkable – a full-scale regional conflict that would be devastating for all involved – and for the rest of the world."
Earlier on Thursday, an Iranian commander hinted that Tehran could adopt a new course with its nuclear programme if Israel threatens direct attacks on the country.
Israeli threats to hit nuclear facilities and attempts to pressure Iran could lead to a "review of the Islamic Republic's nuclear doctrine and policy" and an agreement on old principles is "possible and conceivable," the commander for nuclear security, Ahmad Haghtalab, said on Thursday according to the Tasnim news agency.
So far, the Iranian leadership has always underlined that it does not aim to build nuclear weapons and that its long-standing domestic nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes.
Iran signed a nuclear agreement to drastically restrict the enrichment of uranium and allow strict International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) checks in 2015 after lengthy negotiations due to concerns that Tehran could build a nuclear weapon.
But the United States pulled out of the agreement in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump, and Tehran began enriching uranium and came nearer to weapons-grade purity, while restricting IAEA inspections.
Recently, former leading Iranian politicians have hinted that the country is now technically capable of building nuclear weapons.
Also on Thursday, a top commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that the country's most modern missiles were not used in Tehran's attack on Israel.
"We used old weapons of minimal power against the Zionist enemy," Tasnim quoted Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the aerospace forces, as saying on Thursday.
Iranian state media said Emad and Kheibar Shekan medium-range missiles were used in the attack on Israel. The Paveh cruise missile was also fired.
A year ago, for example, the IRGC presented a fourth version of its Khorramshahr medium-range missile, which can be equipped with a 1.5-ton warhead. Another missile that was not deployed, the Sejil, is said to be able to reach Israel in around seven minutes.
Iran frequently unveils new types of weapons, but claims about their abilities often cannot be independently verified by experts.
