Iran has accused the UN Security Council of ignoring Israeli threats to attack the Islamic Republic and called on the body to demand that the Jewish state desist.
The letter from Iranian Ambassador Javad Zarif to Security Council President Johan Verbeke of Belgium appeared to be a response to condemnations by Western members of the council of comments by Iran's president forecasting Israel's destruction.
Mr Zarif cited remarks attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz refusing to rule out military action to stop Iran's nuclear programme, which the West says aims to create a bomb. Tehran denies that.
"These malicious threats . . . constitute matters of extreme gravity that require urgent and resolute response on the part of the United Nations," he said in the letter dated June 11th.
"The Security Council should react to these threats by unequivocally condemning them and demanding that [Israel] abandon its policy of flouting international law . . . and cease and desist immediately from the threat of use of force against members of the United Nations."
Mr Zarif charged the council with "inaction . . . in dealing with such criminal Israeli policies and practices" that he said had emboldened Israel to "persist in its flagrant defiance" of UN charter principles.
In a reference to the furore over the comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he also accused unnamed council members of joining Israel "in a failed attempt and tired smokescreen" to distract world attention from Israeli actions.