GENEVA (Dispatches) -- 

Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs has hit out at Britain for abusing its presidency of the UN Security Council to silence him on the day the United States and Israel attacked Iran, delivering a blistering account that corroborates Russian accounts that London blocked a requested briefing while European envoys lined up to condemn Tehran for a war it did not start.

Sachs, speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels in remarks circulating in transcript form, said the Chinese, Russian and Iranian missions asked him to testify before the Council on the day of the attack because he opposed the assassination of a country’s leadership in the middle of negotiations. 

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and senior officials had gathered at the leadership residence to discuss Tehran’s negotiating position for talks due in Vienna the following week when the strike occurred. 

“I went to the Security Council chamber and the Brits were in the seat and they ruled me out of order—that there wouldn’t be any witnesses and Mr. Sachs has no role in this discussion,” Sachs said. 

“I’ve come to understand Britain well over the last 50 years. They still believe they’re the British Empire.” 

The account was independently corroborated at the time by Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, who told the Council that the British presidency “grossly scorned Russia and China’s request to invite Jeffrey Sachs, professor of Columbia University, as a briefer at today’s meeting.” 

Nebenzia added that London’s claim to support civil society participation evidently “does not apply to cases whereby internationally recognized academics can reveal the truth that may turn out unflattering to Western governments.” 

Sachs said he sat in “growing absolute shock” as European ambassadors opened their remarks by condemning Iran for attacking its neighbors, with none acknowledging the U.S.-Israeli role in initiating hostilities. 

dimensions will be decisive,” he said. 
He called for development in missiles, drones, air defense, naval equipment, electronics and communications, and the integration of artificial intelligence, urging maximum use of knowledge-based firms and the private sector. 
He stressed “defense economics”—monetizing idle assets, raising productivity and cutting costs—under a “one shot, one target” doctrine.
At a ceremony in Tehran on Monday marking new publications on the Iraqi war on Iran,  IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Hussein Mohebbi said the enemy’s initial aims were to overthrow the Islamic Republic and partition Iran, then to force open the Strait of Hormuz—and that all three failed. 
“After 25 days, the enemy was floundering and began looking for intermediaries to end the war through a memorandum,” he said. 
“We had said our finger was on the trigger, and when the enemy violated the fifth clause of the memorandum by pressuring Oman and diverting shipping south, we pulled the trigger.”
Mohebbi said the enemy also failed in the 12-day and 40-day wars, and that Iran’s capabilities have since grown while the adversary’s have shrunk. 
He described President Donald Trump as “a criminal human being” whose threats are now “more laughable than serious,” and drew a contrast with Iranian officials: “We act on what we say. We are not like the American president who says one thing in the morning, another in the afternoon, and contradicts himself at night.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X on Sunday: “Last time you wanted to ‘finish the job,’ Iran emerged even stronger. Want to try your luck again? Be our guest. But be careful; we have unfinished jobs too.” 
He said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu—subject to International Criminal Court arrest warrants—is dragging the United States into another war “solely to stay out of jail, whatever the consequences for Israel—let alone POTUS.” 
Araghchi has previously called Netanyahu a “degenerate gambler” and “wanted war criminal with Arab, American and Iranian blood on his hands.”