TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Tuesday denounced the U.S. for preventing the UN Security Council from fulfilling its duty to press for an end to the Israeli regime's genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip.

“(Washington) has prevented this body from effectively fulfilling its inherent duties in stopping the overt genocide of a nation and establishing a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip," Amir Abdollahian

said as he addressed a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, especially Gaza.

Israel has been pounding Yemen cruelly and relentlessly since October 7 when Hamas made a surprise attack on southern Israel. The Israeli war on Gaza has so far killed 25,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Thousands of Gazans, including children, have also been maimed for life.

The U.S. has been providing Israel with unbridled military and political support in its onslaught against Gaza, arming Tel Aviv with more than 10,000 tons of military hardware. The US has also torpedoed the prospect of cessation of the Israeli aggression by stonewalling ratification of all Security Council resolutions that have been calling for a ceasefire.

Amir Abdollahian denounced Washington for serving "as the practical supporter and main accomplice of the Israeli regime in its crimes" in Gaza.

"...the U.S. must compel the Israeli regime to stop the war and pull itself out of the trap that the Israeli regime has set to drag the U.S. into direct conflict," Press TV quoted the foreign minister as saying.

'War is not the solution'

Amir Abdollahian reiterated that the carnage of innocent civilians, especially women and children, had to be stopped immediately.

"War is not the solution. Security cannot be achieved by resorting to the use of force and committing the crime of genocide in Gaza," he asserted.

Amir Abdollahian called on the UN Security Council to act on its duty to pass a resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid without any hindrance to Gaza that is home to 2.3 million people.

Such a resolution must also urge immediate and complete exit of Israeli troops from the coastal enclave and extract a commitment from the regime to refrain from any efforts to relocate Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan.

'Israel can never destroy Hamas'

Elsewhere in his remarks, Amir Abdollahian said the goals that the Israeli regime has purportedly been seeking through waging the war, namely "total destruction" of Hamas, will never come true.

"That time will never come," the chief diplomat stated.

Citing reasons for his assertion, the foreign minister said, "In the past 80 years, the steel will of this nation (the Palestinians) has not weakened."