Iran tells UN Security Council: US attack on wedding is a war crime

Tehran - BORNA - In the letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the president of the Security Council, Gholamhossein Dorri Najafabadi said the US launched a new wave of aggression and military attacks against several cities in southern Iran on the night of Sept. 1, including deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian targets. He said US forces struck a residential home in the town of Kuhestak, in Sirik County, Hormozgan province, while a wedding ceremony was underway.

The senior Iranian diplomat said the attack killed four civilians, including a 4-year-old child, and wounded more than 70 others, calling it a heinous crime. He said the targeting and killing of civilians, including children, constitutes a grave violation of the basic rules of international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime.

The full text of the letter from Iran's ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the UN secretary-general and the president of the Security Council is as follows:

I wish to draw your urgent attention to yet another egregious and flagrant crime committed by the United States in the course of its unlawful aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran. This crime constitutes a clear violation of international law and the UN Charter, particularly Article 2(4). On the night of Sept. 1, 2026, the United States launched another wave of aggression and military attacks against several cities in southern Iran, including deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian targets.

In these criminal attacks, the United States struck a residential home in the town of Kuhestak, in Sirik County, Hormozgan province, while a wedding ceremony was underway. As a result of this heinous crime, four civilians, including a four-year-old child, were martyred and more than 70 civilians were wounded. The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns this horrific and heinous crime. The targeting and killing of civilians, including children, constitutes a grave violation of the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime.

In response to this crime and the United States' aggressive actions, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, exercising their inherent right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, carried out defensive and proportionate strikes against US military bases in the region that had been used to carry out these aggressive actions and criminal attacks against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The United States' unlawful conduct extends far beyond this single crime. Since its unprovoked and extensive aggression against Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, the United States has repeatedly targeted civilians, civilian sites and critical infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, airports, residential areas, bridges, roads and railway facilities.

Accordingly, the attack on Kuhestak is part of a broader and deeply troubling pattern of unlawful and indiscriminate attacks by the United States and the Israeli regime across Iran. This pattern is further underscored by public threats and statements by the US president and other senior American officials regarding attacks on Iran's civilian infrastructure, including threats to destroy "an entire civilization" and to "send Iran back to the Stone Age," as well as statements acknowledging or boasting about targeting such infrastructure.

Among the most flagrant violations is the United States' war crime on Feb. 28, 2026, when it attacked an elementary school in Minab, Hormozgan province, killing and wounding a number of children, teachers and civilians. In that crime, more than 168 students — mostly girls aged seven to twelve — along with teachers and school staff, were martyred, and 110 others were wounded. The school was destroyed in the missile strike.

The deliberate and indiscriminate killing of civilians, particularly children, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, which strikes at the foundations of the international legal order, cannot be normalized or dismissed merely as "collateral damage." The protection of civilians is a binding obligation under international law, and its serious and deliberate violation constitutes a war crime under applicable international law.

The United States, along with any other state or party that in any way aids, assists, supports or participates in the commission or execution of such violations or other unlawful acts by the United States, will bear responsibility for the grave consequences of these unlawful international acts, including the extensive damage and harm inflicted on the Iranian people.

In light of the foregoing, the Islamic Republic of Iran once again calls on the secretary-general and the president of the Security Council to fulfill their respective responsibilities under the UN Charter and to:

Strongly condemn the United States' aggressive actions against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which constitute a flagrant violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, and demand their immediate cessation;

Condemn and address the US attack on Kuhestak, which targeted a residential area where a wedding ceremony was being held and resulted in the deaths and injuries of civilians, including children, as a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime, and take into account its serious implications for international peace and security;

Include these criminal attacks and violations — including the attack on the elementary school in Minab and the attack on civilians attending the wedding ceremony in Kuhestak — in its future reports on the protection of civilians and children and compliance with international humanitarian law;

Hold the United States fully responsible for all its unlawful international actions against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the resulting damages, including the destruction of civilian property and infrastructure and the material and moral harm caused by these acts, and demand full reparation in accordance with international law;

Call on the United States to immediately halt and end its aggressive actions and all unilateral and unlawful coercive measures against civilians, and to fully comply, without exception, with its obligations under international humanitarian law.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently exercised restraint and acted in accordance with its rights and obligations under international law. Nevertheless, in exercising its inherent right of self-defense, the Islamic Republic of Iran will take all necessary and proportionate measures to protect its people, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will respond decisively to any act of military aggression in accordance with the UN Charter and applicable international law.

It would be appreciated if you would kindly instruct that this letter be issued as an official document of the Security Council and circulated among its members.

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