Tensions between the United States and Iran are worsening by the day, and Tehran has issued a stern warning to Washington. Iran said the US must accept seven conditions if it wants to begin diplomatic talks. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, conveyed the message to the US through the social media platform X.
Rezaei said the US has no option but to accept Iran’s rights and conditions if it wants to escape the quagmire of its own making or avoid sinking deeper into it. He did not disclose what the seven conditions are. Iran made the statement at a time of war-like conditions between the two countries.
The US also suffered a setback at the United Nations. A UN fact-finding mission investigating the dispute released a report preliminarily concluding that two major US airstrikes on Iran in February amount to war crimes. The report said there is clear evidence that the US military carried out the attacks in violation of international law.
According to the report, US forces attacked the Shajareh Tayyebeh primary school in Minab indiscriminately, despite knowing it was a civilian school with no military activity. About 150 people died, including more than 120 young children. In Lamerd, a strike on a sports centre badly damaged nearby homes and another school, killing 22 civilians and seriously injuring several others. The UN committee called this a war crime as well.
The White House strongly rejected the allegations. Spokesperson Anna Kelly criticised the functioning of the UN Human Rights Council and countered that only Iran, not the US, is committing war crimes in the ongoing clashes. With the UN report on one side and Iran’s seven conditions on the other, Washington now faces intense international pressure.