UNITED NATIONS – Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council that the U.S. is “the aggressor, not the victim” in the Persian Gulf conflict, demanding Washington immediately end its military campaign and lift what he called an illegal naval blockade.
Ambassador Gholamhussein Darzi said the root causes of the crisis were the U.S.-Israeli wars launched on June 13, 2025, and February 28, 2026. 
He said more than 5,000 Iranians have been martyred, including 254 children and 251 women, and cited a Tomahawk missile strike on a school in Minab that killed 168 children and an attack on a stadium in Lamerd that killed at least 21 civilians.
Darzi condemned U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for declaring “no quarter, no mercy,” calling it a violation of international humanitarian law, and cited President Donald Trump’s threats to destroy Iran’s civilian bridges and power plants.
“The United States cannot attack and bomb Iran, violate its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and target civilian infrastructure, threaten Iran with annihilation, impose a military and maritime blockade, and resort to unlawful coercive schemes—including the so-called ‘Economic Operation Outcast’ and ‘Iron Gate Task Force’—to collectively punish a population of 90 million, and then expect the Strait of Hormuz to return to normal as if nothing had happened,” Darzi said.
He said Tehran has never closed the door to diplomacy but that Washington has consistently chosen aggression over dialogue. 
He set conditions for a diplomatic path: an immediate and unconditional end to the aggression, credible guarantees of