Iran warns of 'explosion' after US veto on Gaza war

Iran warned Saturday of the threat of an "uncontrollable explosion" of the situation in the Middle East, after the United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the top diplomat of the Islamic republic, also appealed for the immediate opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to enable humanitarian aid to be sent into the Gaza Strip.

Militants from the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israel, whose main ally is the United States, vowed to destroy Hamas in response and unleashed an offensive that the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza says has killed more than 17,400 people in the Palestinian territory, also mostly civilians.

On Friday, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying the resolution "would leave Hamas in place able to repeat what it did on October 7."

"As long as America supports the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) and the continuation of the war... there is a possibility of an uncontrollable explosion in the situation of the region," Amir-Abdollahian told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a phone call, according to a foreign ministry statement.

The Iranian foreign minister praised the UN chief's decision to use Article 99 of the UN Charter as "brave action to maintain international peace and security".

Fighting resumed between Israel and Hamas on December 1 following a one-week truce that Israel says Hamas violated.

"The Israeli regime's claim that Hamas has violated the ceasefire is completely false," Amir-Abdollahian told Guterres, adding that US support for Israel "has made it difficult to achieve a lasting ceasefire".