TEHRAN - Iran has condemned the United States for vetoing of a UN Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in the Gaza war, saying the "disgraceful" move serves as a "license" for the Tel Aviv regime to push ahead with its bloody wars in the region.

"This disgraceful veto not only marks another failure of UNSC to uphold its Charter based mandate but also serves as a US granted license for occupying regime to continue its carnage in Gaza and Lebanon with impunity," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post X on Thursday.

The document, put to the Security Council by its 10 non-permanent members, demanded an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire" in Gaza, along with “the immediate and unconditional release" of all captives held in the besieged Palestinian territory.

"This is in stark violation of established IHL principle… as well as the Genocide Convention and entails United States international responsibility for complicity in atrocity crimes."

Baghaei noted that the move exposed Washington's contempt for the lives of innocent Palestinians as well as its complicity in their massacre.

"Despite overwhelming global support for, and 14 UNSC members' backing of Gaza ceasefire, the outgoing Democratic US administration vetoed the draft resolution, revealing its full contempt for innocent lives & regional peace and adding to its 13 months long complicity in Israel's genocide," he wrote.