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U.S. warns Iran that 'all options are on the table' in emergency UN meeting

Published: 16 Jan. 2026, 13:04

Protesters participate in a demonstration in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, in Berlin, Germany, on Jan. 14. [AP/YONHAP]

After weeks of escalating tension, U.S. and Iranian officials faced each other Thursday at the UN Security Council, where the United States' envoy renewed threats against the Islamic Republic despite U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to lower the temperature between the two adversaries.

The United States was joined by Iranian dissidents in rebuking the government’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests that activists say has killed at least 2,637 people.

“Colleagues, let me be clear: President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations,” Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the UN, said in a statement. “He has made it clear that all options are on the table to stop the slaughter. And no one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime.”

Women cross a street under a huge banner showing hands firmly holding Iranian flags as a sign of patriotism, as one of them flashes the victory sign, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 14. [AP/YONHAP]

Waltz's remarks came as the prospect of U.S. retaliation for the protesters’ deaths still hung over the region, though Trump signaled a possible de-escalation, saying the killing appeared to be ending. By Thursday, the protests challenging Iran’s theocracy appeared increasingly smothered, but the state-ordered internet and communication blackout remained.

The United States requested the emergency Security Council meeting and invited two Iranian dissidents, Masih Alinejad and Ahmad Batebi, to open the session with gruesome details of their experience as targets of the Islamic Republic.

In a stunning moment, Alinejad addressed the Iranian representative directly.

“You have tried to kill me three times. I have seen my would-be assassin with my own eyes in front of my garden, in my home in Brooklyn,” she said while the Iranian official looked directly ahead, without acknowledging her.

A protester lights a cigarette off a burning poster of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a demonstration in Berlin, Germany, in support of the nationwide mass protests in Iran against the government, Wednesday, Jan. 14. [AP/YONHAP]

In October, two purported Russian mobsters were each sentenced to 25 years behind bars for hiring a hit man to kill Alinejad at her New York home three years ago on behalf of the Iranian government.

Batebi described the deep cuts the prison guards in Iran would inflict on him before pouring salt on his wounds. “If you do not believe me, I can show you my body right now,” he told the council.

Both dissidents called on the world body and the council to do more to hold Iran accountable for its human rights abuses. Batebi pleaded with Trump not to “leave” the Iranian people alone.

“You encouraged people to go into the streets. That was a good thing. But don’t leave them alone,” he said.

A man walks on a sidewalk in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 15. [AP/YONHAP]

Before the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and UN Secretary General António Guterres spoke by phone for the first time since the deadly protests began last month. Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that Araghchi implored the top UN official to live up to the “serious expectation” that Iran’s government and its people have of the U.N.'s role in condemning “illegal U.S. interventions against Iran.”

Meanwhile, the United States announced new sanctions on Iranian officials accused of suppressing the protests, which began late last month over the country’s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency. The Group of 7 industrialized democracies and the European Union said they too were looking at new sanctions to ratchet up the pressure on Iran’s theocratic government.

AP