US and Israel clash with Iran at emergency Security Council meeting. UN chief condemns attacks

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Israel clashed with Iran at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday where the U.N. chief and many countries urged a halt to their attacks and a return to negotiations to prevent the conflict from spreading further into the region and beyond.

Secretary-General António Guterres told the council that everything must be done to prevent an escalation. “The alternative,” he warned, “is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”

Guterres said the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes violated international law, including the U.N. Charter. He also condemned Iran’s retaliatory attacks for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, insisted the U.S. military action was lawful.

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he told the council. “That principle is not a matter of politics. It’s a matter of global security. And to that end, the United States is taking lawful actions.”

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon defended the airstrikes as necessary to stop an existential threat.

“We are stopping extremism before it becomes unstoppable,” he said. “We will ensure that no radical regime armed with nuclea...