Iran’s UN Ambassador: US virtually declared war on Iran

Iranian U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi told CNN that the US killing of Qassem Soleimani, the top commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was tantamount to opening a war against Iran.  “The response for a military action,” he said, “is a military action.”  Iran told the United Nations Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday that it reserves its right to self-defense under international law after the United States killed Soleimani. 

Ravanchi wrote in a letter that the killing of Soleimani “by any measure, is an obvious example of State terrorism and, as a criminal act, constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental principles of international law, including, in particular, those stipulated in the Charter of the United Nations.” In a speech to the American people, US President Donald Trump called Soleimani the “number one terrorist anywhere in the world.”