KAMPALA, UGANDA & TEHRAN, IRAN – June 13, 2025 – The Islamic Republic of Iran has escalated its rhetoric against Israel, formally accusing the “Zionist regime” of committing war crimes and acts of terrorism following recent strikes on Iranian territory. Iran has vowed to retaliate and is urgently seeking intervention from the United Nations. Both a statement from the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kampala and a letter from Iran’s Foreign Minister were issued yesterday, June 13, 2025.
In a scathing statement issued yesterday from the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Kampala, Iran asserted that its “beloved homeland…has been unjustly attacked by a criminal and evil regime”. The embassy detailed that the “occupying and rogue Zionist Regime violated the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of our dear Iran,” carrying out attacks on “several locations, including residential areas in Tehran and other cities across our country”. These strikes, the statement claimed, led to the “martyrdom” of “noblest and most patriotic servants of the nation” and “other innocent civilians”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the embassy, extended “congratulations and condolences” to the Revered Leader and the Iranian people for these losses, incurred by those who “sacrificed their lives for our nation in the face of the Zionist regime’s unforgivable crime”.
Concurrently, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Seyed Abbas Aragchi, dispatched a letter yesterday, June 13, 2025, to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the President of the Security Council, expressing “utmost urgency and deep alarm regarding a brazen and unlawful act of aggression perpetrated by the Israeli regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran”. Aragchi asserted that this “reckless and deliberate escalation flagrantly violates the Charter of the United Nations and the most fundamental norms of international law”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement explicitly characterized the “Zionist regime’s attacks on Iran” as a “violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and a blatant act of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran”. It reiterated Iran’s right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, stating that Iran “reserves the legitimate and legal right to respond to this aggression”. Furthermore, the statement declared that “The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to defend Iran’s sovereignty with full strength and in the manner they deem appropriate”.
Minister Aragchi’s letter further highlighted that among the targets was the Natanz nuclear facility, which he noted “operates under the full safeguards and monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)”. He described this as a “reckless attack” that not only endangered Iranian civilian lives but also posed “an alarming threat to regional and international peace and security by risking a radiological disaster”. Aragchi also pointed to “a number of targeted assassinations of senior Iranian military officials and scientists” carried out in Tehran, asserting these “deliberate and premeditated acts constitute clear instances of state terrorism”.
Both Iranian communications underscored that Israel’s actions represent “yet another episode in Israel’s pattern of unlawful and destabilizing conduct in the region”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement, conveyed by the Kampala embassy, urged the Security Council to “take immediate action against this violation of international peace and security” calling upon the President and members of the Council to “act without delay in this regard”. The Ministry also reminded the UN Secretary-General of his duties under the UN Charter and demanded his “immediate intervention”.
Iran expects all UN member states, especially regional and Islamic countries, and members of the Non-Aligned Movement, to “swiftly condemn this criminal aggression and take urgent and collective measures to counter this reckless adventurism”. Both the embassy statement and Minister Aragchi’s letter unequivocally placed the responsibility for the “grave and far-reaching consequences” of this aggression entirely upon the “Zionist regime and its supporters”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement explicitly claimed that the “Zionist regime’s acts of aggression against Iran could not have been carried out without the coordination and approval of the United States”. Consequently, Iran holds the “US government, as the primary patron of this regime,” accountable, stating it “will also bear responsibility for the dangerous repercussions of the Zionist regime’s reckless actions”
