ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iran on Friday called Germany's failure to secure a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council "a stark rebuke from the international community," citing Berlin's "complicit stance toward the genocide in Gaza and US-Israel’s military aggression against Iran" as the deciding factor.

Comrising 15 member states, including five permament members, the coucil is made up of states that compete for two-year terms on the UN body designed to work toward global security. Germany on Wednesday lost out to Austria and Portugal in the Western Europe and Others quota, marking the first time the country has ever failed to be elected.

"Germany’s failure to secure a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council — for the first time in decades — is a stark rebuke from the international community," Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei wrote on X. "It reflects growing global outrage over the German ruling establishment’s irresponsible, hypocritical, and complicit stance toward the genocide in Gaza and US-Israel’s military aggression against Iran."

"Germany, one of the largest suppliers of lethal weapons to Israel, has consistently justified the genocide of Palestinians. And when the Israeli regime launched its aggression on Iran, Berlin refused to condemn it; instead, it shamelessly described it as 'dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us.'"

Amid the so-called 12-Day War between the US, Israel, and Iran in June 2025, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sparked controversy when he said that "this is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us" on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.

"We are also victims of this regime. This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world," Merz told the ZDF broadcaster.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul suggested that Berlin's support for Israel played a role in its failed election bid, telling reporters on Thursday that "the fact that Germany must always assume a special responsibility for Israel in the Middle East conflict may also have cost votes."

While other European states have moved to recognize Palestinian statehood and taken a harder line against Israel following years of bombardment in Gaza and ever-expanding Israeli de-facto annexation of the West Bank, Berlin has repeatedly balked at any effort to reign in its ally.

Despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes, Merz met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in December, once more reasserting that Berlin will not recognize an independent Palestinian state in "the foreseeable future."

Baghaei, in his Friday post, continued to say, "The world is changing. Nations are no longer judging governments by their lofty rhetoric about international law, but by their actual behavior. Those who choose to ignore this shift will inevitably pay a heavy diplomatic price."