Iran seeks global isolation of Israel amid UN diplomacy and support for Hezbollah

By Seth J. Frantzman, UNITED NATIONS New York

While Israel is seeking to turn the tables on Hezbollah, Iran’s president and his delegation are in New York seeking to turn the tables on Israel at the United Nations.

This has been clear from the large number of meetings Iran is hosting while the Iranians are in the Big Apple.

It’s obvious that Iran is focused today on gaining inroads globally and isolating Israel on the global stage. Iran’s regime believes that Hezbollah can suffer somebody blows while Iran makes other moves. 

In fact, it seems like Iran is willing to sacrifice a lot of people in Lebanon, Gaza, and other places to drag Israel into wars of attrition while Iran makes broader moves.

Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, met Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, the same day Israel launched strikes on 1,600 Hezbollah targets. Both Iran and Turkey back Hamas. The two leaders spoke about the “successful effort to create unity between Tehran and Ankara,” Iran’s IRNA media reported.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has been holding court in New York. Iran is conducting intensive diplomacy there. He has conducted at least three days of key meetings. 

According to IRNA, he met with “senior US media executives, where the President discussed the 14th administration's approach to domestic, regional, and international issues, emphasizing Iran's desire to expand relations with other countries based on mutual respect.”

The Iranians also met with “high-ranking political delegations and the presidents of Tajikistan, Turkiye, Finland, and Switzerland, as well as the King of Jordan, the President of the Council of Europe, and the Elder Group.” 

In all these meetings Iran sought to bring attention to Gaza and what Iran terms “the Zionist regime's war machine.” Araghchi also met Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Iranian president vowed that Iran has not expressed any interest in reducing tensions with Israel. "I emphasize once again that there was no discussion about the necessity of easing tension with the Zionist regime," Araghchi said in an interview with IRIB's channel three on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Iran’s president spoke at the UN General Assembly and demanded an end to Israel’s “crimes.”

Other key meetings included a meeting between the Iranian leader and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Iran’s Foreign Minister warned Israel not to underestimate Hezbollah. 

“During a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in New York on Tuesday, Araghchi condemned the Israeli regime’s attacks on Lebanon and emphasized that if the United States and other allies of Israel do not halt these assaults, they must be held accountable for the consequences,” Iran’s state media noted. Iran is also seeking greater inroads with the Gulf, the spokesperson of Iran’s foreign ministry said.

The overall picture from New York is clear. Iran has had a very successful week of meetings in the city. It has been able to portray itself as a responsible country in many meetings rather than be portrayed as the country that prodded Hamas to carry out October 7 and plunge the region into its worst war in many years. The fact is that the Iranian regime is the one creating wars around the Middle East.

Today, the agenda of Russia and China mesh with Iran’s agenda, and therefore, Iran is making inroads with many countries despite its destabilizing role. China and Russia are happy to exploit Iran’s role in the Middle East for their own ends. 

Russia is waging a war in Ukraine, and China is stoking tensions in the Pacific, for instance. All the stars have aligned for Iran at the UN, and it is exploiting them to the hilt.