Just hours after the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist, Tehran demanded the United Nations Security Council condemn the killing and take action against those responsible, but diplomats say the call is likely to go unheeded.
At a minimum, the 15-member body could discuss Friday's killing of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh behind closed doors if a member requests such a meeting or it could agree on – by consensus – a statement on the issue.
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But South Africa's UN ambassador, Jerry Matjila, council president for December, said on Tuesday that no member had so far requested to discuss the killing or Iran in general. Diplomats also said there had been no discussion of a statement.
The Security Council is charged with maintaining international peace and security and has the ability to authorize military action and impose sanctions. But such measures require at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China.
While no party has claimed responsibility for the killing of Fakhrizadeh – viewed by Western powers as the architect of Iran's nuclear weapons program – Iran has accused Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has declined to comment.
Washington, which traditionally shields Israel in the Security Council, has declined to comment on the assassination of the scientist.
The UN investigator on extra-judicial executions, Agnes Callamard, said on Friday that many questions surrounded the killing of Fakhrizadeh, but noted the definition of an extraterritorial targeted killing outside of an armed conflict.
Callamard posted on Twitter that such a killing was "a violation of international human rights law prohibiting the arbitrary deprivation of life and a violation of the UN Charter prohibiting the use of force extraterritorially in times of peace."
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs on Tuesday criticized Iran's foreign minister for implicating Riyadh in Fakhrizadeh's killing.
"Iranian Foreign Minister [Mohammad Javad] Zarif is desperate to blame the Kingdom for anything negative that happens in Iran. Will he blame us for the next earthquake or flood?" minister Adel Al-Jubeir said in a tweet.
"It is not the policy of Saudi Arabia to engage in assassinations; unlike Iran, which has done so since the Khomeini Revolution in 1979," he added.
Jubeir's remarks appeared to be a response to comments made on Monday by Zarif which suggested a covert meeting in Saudi Arabia between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Netanyahu contributed to the assassination of Fakhrizadeh.
"[US Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo's hurried trips to the region, the trilateral meeting in Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu's statements all point to this conspiracy that unfortunately emerged in Friday's cowardly terrorist act and the martyrdom of one of the country's top executives," Zarif wrote on Instagram.
A senior Iranian official has said that Tehran suspects a foreign-based opposition group of complicity with Israel in the killing of Fakhrizadeh.
The group rejected the accusation.
Saudi Arabia has not formally condemned the assassination, unlike the other five Gulf Cooperation Council member countries.
Asked in an interview with Russian broadcaster RT on Tuesday to comment on the killing, Riyadh's United Nations envoy said the kingdom "did not support the policy of assassinations at all."
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