The United Nations said on Thursday it could not confirm Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref’s statement that Secretary-General António Guterres told him the June war with Israel had ended efforts to topple the Islamic Republic.
“I’m not able to confirm that the Secretary-General would ever have said that,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York. He said Aref appeared to be referring to an August meeting in Turkmenistan and pointed to the UN readout from August 5 as the accurate record.
Aref told Iranian state media that Guterres had said “the file of overthrowing the establishment was closed after the 12-day war.” He did not say when or where the conversation took place.
Guterres has made no such remark publicly. During the June conflict, he said on X that he was “gravely alarmed” by the use of force by the United States against Iran, calling it a dangerous escalation and a threat to international peace.
The 12-day war began with Israeli strikes that killed Iranian nuclear scientists and ended with US bombings of three key nuclear sites.
Aref spoke days after US President Donald Trump warned Washington would strike Iran again if it restarted its nuclear program. Speaking at a Navy anniversary event in Virginia, Trump called the June 22 airstrikes “perfectly executed” and said Tehran had been weeks from building a nuclear weapon.
Iran says it does not seek confrontation but will respond if attacked. Aref said the conflict showed US forces “could not achieve their objectives.”
The remarks came as Britain, France and Germany moved to reimpose UN sanctions lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal.
