UN Official Resigns, Says Senior UN Officials Serve Powerful Lobby Spreading False Iran Nuclear Threat

Mohamad Safa, the main representative of the Patriotic Vision Association at the United Nations, resigned on 27 March and accused senior UN officials of serving a 'powerful lobby' that fabricated claims about Iran's nuclear capabilities to build a case for war, Middle East Eye reported.

'I gave up my diplomatic career to leak this information,' Safa wrote in a post on X. 'I suspended my duties so as not to be part of or a witness to this crime against humanity.'

The resignation letter, addressed to member state representatives, declared the suspension of his duties across UN offices in New York, Geneva and Vienna, and his withdrawal from all UN committees.

Safa alleged that senior officials and influential diplomats had 'deployed a misinformation campaign claiming an Iran nuclear threat' early in 2026, aided by global media and social media algorithms. 'This lobby was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to world peace. This was a lie,' he wrote, comparing the tactic to justifications for military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

Safa Alleges Death Threats and Censorship at the UN

According to his letter, the decision had been years in the making. Safa said he first considered stepping down in 2023 after concluding that some senior figures were acting in the interest of an outside lobby, not the UN. He waited three years.

He claimed death threats had been made against him and his family after he expressed a 'differing perspective' following the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. He also alleged financial penalties and censorship. The UN, he said, had 'abandoned' him.

'I cannot in good conscience be part of or witness to what is happening at a time when the top UN officials refuse to describe what is happening in Gaza as genocide, what is happening in Lebanon as war crimes and ethnic cleansing, that the war on Iran is illegal under international law,' he wrote.

The Patriotic Vision Association is a non-governmental organisation with special consultative status at the UN Economic and Social Council since 2018. Safa served as its executive director from 2013 and was nominated as its permanent representative to the UN in 2016, according to the UN Environment Programme. He had been affiliated with the institution for nearly 12 years.

WHO Warns of Nuclear 'Worst-Case Scenario' Amid Iran Conflict

His departure came days after the World Health Organisation said it was preparing for a 'worst-case scenario' involving nuclear catastrophe should the US and Israeli campaign against Iran escalate.

Hanan Balkhy, the WHO's regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, told Politico that a nuclear incident was 'something that worries us the most.' The consequences, she warned, would last decades. Staff were preparing for nuclear scenarios 'in its broader sense,' she added, covering both strikes on nuclear facilities and the potential use of nuclear weapons.

Former IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei struck a similar tone. Asked whether nuclear weapons could be used against Iran, he told Middle East Eye: 'Should I one hundred percent exclude it? No. Do I pray every night that it doesn't? Yes.'

In a separate post on 29 March, Safa shared a photograph of Tehran and warned against treating a city of nearly 10 million as a military target. 'Only the people can stop it. History will remember us,' he wrote.

Several Iranian lawmakers have since called for Tehran to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty following US and Israeli strikes on civilian nuclear sites. Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for Iran's parliamentary national security commission, said remaining in the treaty 'has had no benefit for us.' Iran has been a signatory since 1970. Israel has never joined.

The United Nations had not responded to Safa's allegations at the time of reporting.