‘Trump is man of action,’ US ambassador tells Iran during emergency UN meeting

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz warned Iran at an emergency Security Council meeting that President Donald Trump “is a man of action” who has “made it clear that all options are on the table to stop the massacre.”

Waltz said Thursday that “we all have a responsibility to support the Iranian people and end the regime’s neglect and oppression of the Iranian nation.”

Iran has been plunged into turmoil amid recent anti-government protests, which have left at least 2,677 people dead, the U.S. Human Rights Activists News Agency told The Associated Press.

“Colleagues, let me be clear. President Trump is a man of action, not endless speeches like we see at the United Nations. He has made it clear that all options are on the table to stop the massacre. And no one should know that better than the leaders of the Iranian regime,” Waltz added.

Waltz’s remarks come as Gholam Hossein Darzi, Iran’s deputy ambassador to the UN, accuses the United States of trying to destabilize the Islamic Republic.

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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Iran, January 15, 2026, in New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

“Under the false pretense of its concern for the Iranian people and its claims of support for human rights, the US regime is attempting to present itself as a friend of the Iranian people, while laying the groundwork for political destabilization and military intervention as part of a so-called humanitarian narrative,” Darzi said.

Waltz rejected that claim, telling diplomats at U.N. headquarters on Thursday that Iran’s leaders were “afraid of their own people.”

“I would like to respond to the allegation put forward by the regime that these inspired protests are somehow a foreign plot to provide a taste of military action. Everyone in the world should know that the regime is weaker than ever and so it is putting forward this lie because of the power of the Iranian people in the streets,” Waltz said.

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Iranians gather by blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, January 9, 2026. (MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

“They are afraid. They are afraid of their own people. Iran says it is ready for dialogue, but its actions say otherwise. It is a regime that rules through oppression, violence and intimidation, and has destabilized the Middle East for decades. Well, enough is enough,” he added.

“The regime’s failure to fulfill its duties to its own citizens is what has put the ayatollahs in the position they are in today, with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, protesting in the streets after decades of neglect and abuse. So everyone should be asking, everyone sitting here today, how many people are dead?” Waltz also said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump and his team “made clear to the Iranian regime that if the killings continued, there would be serious consequences.”

President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One upon his return from Detroit, Michigan, to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, January 13, 2026. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

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“And the president received a message when he revealed yesterday to all of you and to the world that the killings and executions would stop. And the president today understands that 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday have been halted. So the president and his team are closely monitoring this situation, and all options remain on the table for the president,” she added.