Iran’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations has strongly rejected the allegations that the country has been involved in the recent series of strikes on US military troops in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
“We have said very clearly that Iran is not involving in any attack against the United States forces in the region,” Amir Saeid Iravani told CNN television news network in an interview aired on Thursday evening.
Iran supports resistance groups in the region but does not direct any of those operations, he said, likening Iran’s role to that of the US in assisting the Israeli regime.
The Iranian UN envoy also emphasized that he has not had any “direct conversation” with his US counterpart Linda Thomas-Greenfield about the stoppage of Israel’s bloody military onslaught against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Iravani said Iran has “insisted that we are not going to expand this war front,” and has worked to calm allies in the region, but said others are doing their part.
He indicated that the conflict could still expand if the Tel Aviv regime’s strikes in Gaza continued.
Earlier, the Iranian envoy to the United Nations said that Tehran “has never been involved in any attack or action against US forces in Syria and Iraq.”
Iravani made the remarks in a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday.
He rejected as “baseless claims” the accusation made by the United States in a letter to the UN Security Council in late October.
Iravani argued that the US allegations, based on an “arbitrary and incorrect” reading of a UN Charter article, failed to have any legal basis and validity.
Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the UN said based on international law, “an occupying entity is not entitled to resort to the right of self-defense as a valid justification for its unlawful actions within the occupied territory.”
“The US remarks were aimed at whitewashing its illegal military presence and actions in Syria, including targeting civilians and critical infrastructure,” Iravani said.
He stressed that presence of Iranian military advisors in Syria was “completely legal” and in response to the Syrian government’s official request to be provided with support in its fight against terrorism.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Thursday that the US forces have been attacked 46 times since October 17. That includes 24 attacks in Iraq and 22 in Syria, she added.
A total of 56 troops have been injured in the attacks, the Pentagon says, claiming that all injuries were minor and every service member has since returned to duty.
The strikes on US military positions in Iraq and Syria come amid rising anti-US sentiment over Washington’s all-out support for the Israeli onslaught against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 10,818 people, including 2,918 women and 4,412 children.
Another 26,900 people have been wounded as well. At least 2,650 individuals are reported missing, including at least 1,400 children, who are still trapped under the rubble waiting to be rescued.
The Israeli regime launched the war after Gaza’s resistance groups conducted Operation al-Aqsa Storm, their biggest operation against the occupying entity in years. Since the onset of the war, the United States has backed Israel’s ferocious attacks on the Palestinian territory as a means of “self-defense.”
Late last month, Washington vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that called on the occupying regime to cease its war.
