US warns Iran that 'all options are on the table' in emergency UN
meeting
[January 16, 2026]
By FARNOUSH AMIRI and EDITH M. LEDERER
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — After weeks of escalating tension, U.S. and
Iranian officials faced each other Thursday at the U.N. Security
Council, where America's envoy renewed threats against the Islamic
Republic despite President Donald Trump's efforts to lower the
temperature between the two adversaries.
The U.S. was joined by Iranian dissidents in rebuking the government’s
bloody crackdown on nationwide protests that activists say have killed
at least 2,677 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 U.N., told the council. “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.”
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.
One diplomat told The Associated Press that top officials from Egypt,
Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar spent the last 48 hours raising concerns
with Trump that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global
economy and destabilize an already volatile region.
During the meeting, Hossein Darzi, the deputy Iranian ambassador to the
U.N., blasted the U.S. for what he claimed was America's “direct
involvement in steering unrest in Iran to violence.”
“Under the hollow pretext of concern for the Iranian people and claims
of support for human rights, the United States is attempting to portray
itself as a friend of the Iranian people, while simultaneously laying
the groundwork for political destabilization and military intervention
under a so-called ′humanitarian′ narrative,” Darzi said.
The U.S. requested the emergency Security Council meeting and invited
two Iranian dissidents, Masih Alinejad and Ahmad Batebi, to describe
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.
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.
Russia was the only member of the council that defended Iran's actions
while calling for the U.S. to stop intervening.
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A man walks on a sidewalk in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan.
15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Protests appear smothered as death toll rises
Videos of demonstrations have stopped coming out of Iran, likely
signaling the slowdown of their pace under the heavy security force
presence in major cities.
In Iran’s capital, Tehran, witnesses said recent mornings showed no
new signs of bonfires lit the night before or debris in the streets.
The sound of gunfire, which had been intense for several nights, has
also faded.
The clampdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,677
people, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News
Agency. The figure reported Thursday is an increase of 106 from a
day earlier, and the organization says the number will likely
continue to climb. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of
protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos
surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The U.S.-based agency, founded 20 years ago, has been accurate
throughout multiple years of demonstrations, relying on a network of
activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities.
With communications greatly limited in Iran, the AP has been unable
to independently confirm the group’s toll. The Iranian government
has not provided casualty figures.
New sanctions on senior Iranians
In other developments Thursday, the U.S. 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 Seven industrialized
democracies and the European Union also said they too were looking
at new sanctions to ratchet up the pressure on Iran’s theocratic
government.
Among those hit with U.S. sanctions was the secretary of Iran’s
Supreme Council for National Security, whom the Treasury Department
accuses of being one of the first officials to call for violence
against protesters. The Group of Seven, of which the U.S. is a
member, also warned they could impose more sanctions if Iran’s
crackdown continues.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said the 27-nation bloc
was looking at strengthening sanctions “to push forward that this
regime comes to an end and that there is change.
___
Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington
and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this
report.
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