Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations has asked the Security Council to condemn Washington’s escalating campaign to destabilise the country, following a public call by US President Donald Trump for protesters to seize Iranian state institutions.
In a letter sent on Tuesday evening, Amir Saeid Iravani said Trump’s social media post “explicitly encourages political destabilisation, incites and invites violence, and threatens the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
In a post on Tuesday on the social media site Truth Social, Trump said: “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! … HELP IS ON ITS WAY,” without saying what that help might be.
Asked what he meant by “help is on its way”, Trump told reporters he would have to figure that out.
Iravani said Trump’s language must be read in the context of recent hostilities against Iran by the US and Israel.
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“The statement explicitly made today by the President of the United States, calling for the ‘taking over of institutions,’ must be understood in the context of the failure of the 12-day war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran in June 2025, and as an integral component of a broader regime-change policy,” he wrote.
The short war, launched initially by Israel, killed around 1,000 people in the country.
Iravani also blamed both Washington and Tel Aviv for civilian casualties, saying: “The United States and the Israeli regime bear direct and undeniable legal responsibility for the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives, particularly among the youth”.
U.S. fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention. This playbook has failed before. The Iranian people will defend their… pic.twitter.com/aBvww5JqWQ
— I.R.IRAN Mission to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) January 13, 2026
He called on the UN secretary-general and the Security Council to act under the UN Charter, urging them to “unequivocally” condemn “all forms of incitement to violence, threats to use force, and interference in Iran’s internal affairs by the United States”.
The Iranian ambassador also asked the UN to “urge the US and the Israeli regime to immediately cease destabilising policies and practices and to comply fully with their obligations under international law” and to warn Washington against any “acts of military aggression”.
Former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Gaza genocide, told Israeli army radio on Tuesday: “The regime in Iran must fall, and we need to exercise strategic patience, while remaining ready to act when is necessary.
“At this moment, when what matters most is the mass action on the ground, we need to stay in the background and steer things with an invisible hand,” he added.
Protests in Iran began on 28 December, and Israeli officials have remained relatively silent in public about any possible Israeli involvement.
