Ali Bahreini, Ambassador and Everlasting Consultant of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Workplace in Geneva attends a session of the Human Rights Council on the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 16, 2026.
| Picture Credit score: Reuters
Iran vowed on the United Nations on Monday (March 16, 2026) that it will not undergo “lawless aggression”, and mentioned its residents have been in “grave hazard” from U.S. and Israeli strikes.
On the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the place nations have been discussing the rights scenario in Iran — notably following its lethal crackdown on protesters in latest months — Tehran mentioned the main target as an alternative needs to be on the conflict in West Asia.
“Essentially the most pressing and basic human rights problem regarding Iran is the approaching menace to the lives of 90 million individuals whose lives are in fast and grave hazard below the shadow of reckless navy aggression,” mentioned Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
He referred to as it “an aggression that’s carried out by a number of the most lawless and unscrupulous actors on the worldwide stage”.
Mr. Bahreini mentioned that if such “reckless militarism” was met with indifference, “Iran will most actually not be the final nation to undergo such therapy”.
On February 28, the U.S. and Israel launched their conflict on Iran, that has seen the Islamic republic retaliate towards a number of nations within the West Asia.
Iranian cultural heritage below assault
Throughout a session on Iran’s report, Mr. Bahreini urged the UN’s prime rights physique to as an alternative talk about the Iranian cultural heritage below “indiscriminate” assault and “the harmless youngsters massacred at their college desks”.
United States and Israel performed a lethal missile assault on a faculty within the southern metropolis of Minab. Washington has mentioned it’s investigating the incident. AFP doesn’t have entry to the location.
The ambassador mentioned greater than 1,300 individuals had been killed in Iran and greater than 7,000 injured because the U.S.-Israeli strikes started.
“Underneath such circumstances, what precisely is Iran anticipated to do?” he requested, stating: “Iran just isn’t a nation that submits to coercion, intimidation or lawless aggression.”
‘Wounded protesters arrested’
The six Gulf Cooperation Council nations, plus Jordan, condemned Iran’s assaults on their territories, saying they endangered regional safety and civilian lives, and “can’t be justified below any pretext”.
The UN Human Rights Council was holding an interactive dialogue between nations and the council’s particular rapporteur on rights in Iran and its fact-finding mission on the nation.
Particular rapporteur Mai Sato mentioned Tehran’s lethal crackdown on the nationwide protests that started on December 28, by which “over 7,000 deaths have been reported by civil society”, adopted a “sample of persecution” that lengthy predated the rebellion.
“What was new and what has left a profound impression on me was the violation of medical neutrality,” she mentioned.
“Hospitals have been raided. Wounded protesters arrested from their beds. Medical professionals assaulted and arrested. A state directive instructing hospitals to supply info on injured protesters.
“The consequence was a healthcare system by which the injured feared looking for therapy greater than the accidents themselves, and the act of saving life criminalised.”
She mentioned that the U.S.-Israeli strikes “stay illegal, regardless of the assumed or acknowledged targets of these strikes”.
She mentioned her mandate exists for the individuals of Iran, and whether or not perpetrators are Iranian or overseas, “the individuals harmed are the identical”.
The Unbiased Worldwide Truth-Discovering Mission on Iran has mentioned the conflict within the West Asia is more likely to end in worsening institutionalised home repression of Iranian residents.
Revealed – March 16, 2026 11:34 pm IST