UN's Guterres urges 'give peace a chance' in Israel-Iran conflict

By David Brunnstrom and Doina Chiacu

(Reuters) -UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that expansion of the Israel-Iran conflict could "ignite a fire no one can control" and called on both sides and potential parties to the conflict to "give peace a chance."

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, speaking at the same United Nations Security Council session, warned that attacks on nuclear facilities could result in the release of radiation "within and beyond boundaries" of Iran, and called for maximum restraint.

Guterres said there were "moments when the directions taken will shape not just the fate of nations, but potentially our collective future".

"This is such a moment," he said.

He said expansion of the conflict would "ignite a fire that no one can control" and added: "We must not let that happen."

"To the parties to the conflict, the potential parties to the conflict, and to the Security Council as the representative of the international community, I have a simple and clear message: give peace a chance," Guterres said.

The Security Council session took place as European foreign ministers met their Iranian counterpart on Friday hoping to test Tehran's readiness to negotiate a new nuclear deal despite there being scant prospect of Israel ceasing its attacks soon.

Israel has repeatedly bombed nuclear targets in Iran and Iran has fired missiles and drones at Israel as a week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side.

The White House said on Thursday U.S. President Donald Trump would make a decision within the next two weeks whether to get involved on Israel's side. Iran said on Friday it would not discuss the future of its nuclear program while under attack by Israel.

Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said his country sought genuine efforts to dismantle Iran's nuclear capabilities from Friday's meeting between European and Iranian ministers, not just another round of talks

"We have seen diplomatic talks for the last few decades, and look at the results," he told reporters.

"If it is going to be like another session and debates, that's not going to work."

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, outlined Israeli attacks on nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Arak.

He said the level of radioactivity outside Iran's Natanz site has remained unchanged and at normal levels, indicating no external radiological impact on the population or the environment there.

However, he said that within the facility there was both radiological and chemical contamination. He said the IAEA was not aware of any damage at Iran's Fordow plant at this time.

An attack on Iran's Bushehr plant would be most serious, he said: "It is an operating nuclear power plant and hosts thousands of kilograms of nuclear material."

"I want to make it absolutely and completely clear: In the case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity to the environment," Grossi said.

"Similarly, a hit that disabled the only two lines supplying electrical power to the plant could cause its reactor's core to melt."

He said any action against the Tehran nuclear research reactor will also have severe consequences, "potentially for large areas of the city of Tehran and its inhabitants."

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Dorothy Camille Shea, said the United States "continues to stand with Israel and supports its actions against Iran's nuclear ambitions."

"We can no longer ignore that Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon," she said.

China and Russia demanded immediate de-escalation.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said Israel's actions risked pulling third countries into the conflict and internationalization of the conflict must be avoided.

He said targeting of what he called Iran’s peaceful civilian nuclear facilities was "liable to plunge us into a hither to unseen nuclear catastrophe."

Iran says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Mark Porter, Alexandra Hudson)