March 6 (Reuters) – Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said on Friday that at least 1,332 Iranian civilians have died so far in the conflict with Israel and the U.S., and that thousands more have been injured.
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations in New York, Iravani asserted that the U.S. and Israel had deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure, while Iran had targeted military sites, not civilians.
The U.S. and Israel have said the opposite is the case.
Iravani said Iran was also not targeting the interests of neighboring states and was investigating allegations that it had struck non-military sites.
“Our initial assessment indicate that some of these incidents may have resulted from the interceptions or interference by the United States defense system, which could have diverted from intended military targets,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” on Friday and said its new supreme leader must be “acceptable,” after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the war’s first day. Trump told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that he must have a say in the selection.
Iravani called Trump’s statement “a clear violation of the principles of non interference in the internal affairs of states, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.”
“The selection of Iran’s leadership will take place strictly in accordance with our constitutional procedures and solely by the will of the Iranian people without any foreign interference,” he added.
Hours after Trump’s comments, Iran’s president announced that unspecified countries had begun mediation efforts, one of the first signals of any diplomatic initiative to end the conflict.
Two U.S. officials told Reuters U.S. investigators believe it is likely U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday, but have not yet reached a final conclusion.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Kanishka Singh; Editing by David Ljunggren and Rosalba O’Brien)
Comments