Iran has vowed at the United Nations that it will not submit to “lawless aggression”, saying its citizens were in “grave danger” from US and Israeli strikes, AFP reports.

At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where countries were discussing the rights situation in Iran — notably following its deadly crackdown on protesters in recent months — Tehran said the focus instead should be on the Middle East war.

“The most urgent and fundamental human rights issue concerning Iran is the imminent threat to the lives of 90 million people whose lives are in immediate and grave danger under the shadow of reckless military aggression,” Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, has said.

“An aggression that is carried out by some of the most lawless and unscrupulous actors on the international stage.”

Bahreini said that if such “reckless militarism” was met with indifference, “Iran will most certainly not be the last country to suffer such treatment.”