UN Security Council to meet on Iran Friday: Russian state media

MOSCOW: UN Security Council will hold closed-door consultations on Friday to discuss strikes on Iran at Moscow’s request, Russian state media reported, as the Middle East war nears its second month.

Iran has come under near-daily bombardment since US-Israeli strikes on February 28 triggered the war, which has since widened to large parts of the region.

“The Russian Federation has requested closed-door consultations with the UN Security Council due to the ongoing strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran, including educational and healthcare facilities,” said Evgeny Uspensky, spokesman for Russia’s envoy to the United Nations, according to state news agency TASS.

A strike on the first day of the war hit a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab, killing more than 160 children, according to authorities.

Preliminary findings of a US military investigation reported by The New York Times showed that a US Tomahawk cruise missile had hit the school due to a targeting mistake.

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The United States, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, scheduled the meeting for 10:00 am in New York (1400 GMT), according to TASS.

The US-Israeli military campaign has targeted Iranian leadership, missile sites and military infrastructure, prompting a large-scale Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the effective closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global crude and liquefied natural gas pass during peacetime.

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The UN Human Rights Council will hold a separate meeting Friday in Geneva focused on the deadly school strike.