Israeli attack on Iran: UN must act to stop escalation

Bharat Dogra :

Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 13, 2025 cannot be justified at all as the past record of Iran has been of cooperating reasonably well with the international community regarding nuclear weapon concerns.
The most important example of this is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement reached a decade ago in July 2015. Within about six months of this agreement being reached, a USA government document stated that Iran had done the following within six months of the agreement being reached- shipped 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium out of the country, dismantled and removed two-thirds of its centrifuges, removed the calandria from its heavy water reactor and filled it with concrete, apart from providing unprecedented access to its nuclear facilities and supply chains.
This is a very clear indication and confirmation that Iran has been prepared to go to great lengths to cooperate with the international community to address concerns regards its nuclear weapons program.
A review of these steps taken by Iran till January 2016 can be seen in a US government document of this date based on a speech by President Obama and titled ‘The Historic Deal that will Prevent Iran from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons’ .
It was only after this progress was confirmed that the USA moved forward to implement its part of the deal relating to removal of US sanctions on Iran (only nuclear-related sanctions, other sanctions continued to remain).
Another aspect to be noted is that the JCPOA was a very remarkable diplomatic achievement giving wider hope for world peace as apart from Iran, USA, Germany, France, UK and European Community, Russia and China could also be brought in to ensure broad-based support for this.
Hence it was a great regret for all those committed to world peace when the USA under President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018.
After this the chances of the issue being resolved peacefully have been decreasing, given also the tendency of Israel and the Israeli lobby to be more aggressive against Iran.
During his second term President Trump had shown some inclination for resolving this issue peacefully, and there have been several rounds of discussions with Iran. However there are several very hawkish elements in US policy making and often they tend to have a higher influence on policy. What is more, unlike in 2015, Europe has been much less firm in its commitment to finding peaceful solutions. On the other hand, following the overall weakening of the Axis of Resistance in recent months due to a number of factors, Israel’s hawkish elements led by Netanyahu have been getting more insistent about attacking nuclear sites in Iran, and they have finally carried out this attack, expressing their intention to carry out more such attacks after the first attacks are reported to have harmed nuclear and ballistic missile sites, apart from killing a very senior military leader.
While the USA has stated clearly that it is not a participant in these attacks, of course the USA knew what was coming, as is evident from the earlier removal of military personnel dependents and other non-essential persons from US military sites and embassies at sensitive places in the Middle-East. It is also clear that a firm no from the USA could have led to preventing these attacks. After all, the peaceful possibilities of addressing nuclear weapon concerns had not been exhausted yet and as past experience of 2015-17 had shown, peaceful solutions are certainly possible.
As Iran is of course likely to respond in some way, further disruption of peace in an already deeply disturbed and volatile region cannot be avoided up to a certain stage, and all that we can hope for is that this does not cross certain redlines to cause massive destruction. Any escalation here is of course terrible for the overall prospects for world peace which is already endangered seriously at multiple points. The UN should intervene as quickly and as best as possible to contain the very serious new crisis by working to stop and contain within limits the new attacks and counter-attacks. All talk of one country destroying the other must be strictly avoided. All those committed to peace must do the best they can to contain and end this new crisis which has come at a time when the world already has more than what it can handle in terms of conflict and war-related crisis situations. This latest crisis is further confirmation of our oft-raised plea for creating a wider paradigm for peace and safety with justice instead of the world lurching rapidly and precariously from one dangerous crisis to another.

(Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Saving Earth for Children, A Day in 2071, Man over Machine-A Path to Peace.)