The United States has said that it stands by the "brave people of Iran," and President Donald Trump "has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter," US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told the UN Security Council.
"President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations. He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter," Waltz told the Security Council meeting, which Washington had requested on Thursday.
But Trump after days of sabre-rattling, adopted a wait-and-see posture, saying he had been told that the killings were easing and that he believed there was no current plan for large-scale executions.
Waltz dismissed allegations by Iran that the protests are "a foreign plot to give a precursor to military action."
"Everyone in the world needs to know that the regime is weaker than ever before, and therefore is putting forward this lie because of the power of the Iranian people in the streets.
They are afraid. They're afraid of their own people," Waltz said.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged "maximum restraint at this sensitive moment and calls on all actors to refrain from any actions that could lead to further loss of life or ignite a wider regional escalation," senior UN official Martha Pobee told the council.
US 'steering unrest' in Iran
Iran’s Deputy Permanent Representative Gholamhossein Darzi began his remarks by denouncing the two civil society briefers, saying they "represent the political agenda of the United States and Israeli regimes."
Turning to the situation in Iran, the ambassador said that he was speaking on behalf of a "nation in mourning".
"It is deeply regrettable that the representative of the United States regime, which requested this meeting, has today resorted to lies, distortions of facts and deliberate disinformation to conceal his country’s direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran towards violence," he said.
The protests in Iran erupted on December 28 after shopkeepers in the Iranian capital Tehran took to the streets to rail against the collapse of the national currency, soaring inflation and worsening living conditions.
Demonstrations quickly spread across the country, turning into mass anti-government protests. Hundreds of deaths of both protesters and security forces have been reported.
Authorities have imposed a near-total communications blackout that is still in place, although protests have subsided.
