FIRST ON FOX: The new Israeli ambassador to the United Nations has issued a stern warning to the international body amid escalating tensions with Hezbollah and concerns that Iran could be close to obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

Ambassador Danny Danon told Fox News Digital that Security Council Resolution 1701 “said very clearly that there would be no military force in southern Lebanon besides the Lebanese military, but look what happened since 2006.”

“Hezbollah took over, they controlled the region, and they made this area a hub for terrorism with tens of thousands of rockets that, unfortunately, in the last few months, we felt the capabilities,” he argued. “I think if the U.N. is not capable of implementing the resolution, we will have to implement the resolution and push Hezbollah away from our community in the north.”

Part of tackling the various groups in the Middle East – such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen – requires dealing with Iran. 

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“I think it’s about time that not only Israel will deal with Iran, but the Western democracies will realize that they have to put pressure on Iran, they have to be active in order to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear capabilities,” he said. 

“We thought on April 14 when they sent hundreds of projectiles into Israel and their intentions … imagine they had nuclear capabilities,” Danon noted. “We will not wait for that day. We will not allow them to achieve nuclear capabilities.”

Danon replaced Gilad Erdan, who in May decided to end his tenure as the permanent representative to the U.N. Danon previously held the role from 2015 until 2020, after which he took the role of Minister of Science, Technology and Space. 

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Split screen showing Hamas terrorists on left, Hezbollah Radwan forces on the right. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images | AP/Hassan Ammar)

Erdan served in the U.N. during the Oct. 7 attack and roughly the first nine months of Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip as the Israeli Defense Forces hunted down Hamas. 

Erdan rose to international prominence for his fiery rhetoric, his bold speeches – including symbolically shredding the U.N. charter – and labeling the United Nations as a broken institution. Just last week, he declared that “the U.N. building in Jerusalem needs to be closed and erased from the face of the Earth.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan destroys with a machine a piece of paper with the title of the United Nations Charter as he addresses delegates during the United Nations General Assembly before voting on a draft resolution that would recognize the Palestinians as qualified to become a full U.N. member, in New York City on May 10, 2024.  (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

Danon, on the other hand, believes that the U.N. can be saved – but it requires the U.S. to step in and make demands to seek reform. 

“Let’s look at the facts,” Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon told Fox News Digital. “The facts are that the UN was not able to condemn  … October 7th. I cannot accept that.” 

Former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi speaks during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“Not the Security Council, nor the General Assembly, not even a small show condemnation: Zero. Nothing. Silence. That’s unacceptable, and it showed that the double standards of the U.N. when it comes to Israel,” Danon argued. 

The Palestinian flag and the flag of Hezbollah wave in the wind on a pole as peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon patrol the border area between Lebanon and Israel on Hamames Hill in the Khiyam area of southern Lebanon on Oct. 13, 2023. (Photo by JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images)

“I think we should reform the U.N., and I expect the U.S. to lead the action to change the U.N.,” he added. “I think the U.N. is an important organization, and we have to reform it and make sure that the U.N. will focus on the real objects of promoting security and peace and not becoming a platform for hate and incitement by radical countries.” 

“I think that the major country – the strongest country, that allocates most of their budget should come with demands and look at the performance of the U.N., the resolution of the U.N. and ask for accountability and make sure that the focus will be on the right places,” Danon argued. “It’s not happening today.” 

The U.S. contributed more than $18 billion to the United Nations in 2022, accounting for one-third of funding for the body’s collective budget, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Court sentences PetroSaudi executives to six and seven years in Malaysia investment fund fraud case.

The Swiss Federal Criminal Court has convicted two executives from an oil exploration company for embezzling more than $1.8bn from Malaysia’s state investment fund 1MDB.

The verdict on Wednesday was the latest episode in the 1MDB scandal, a complex tale of international corruption that has buffeted a slew of financial institutions and individuals across the globe since allegations of wrongdoing first surfaced in 2015.

Prosecutors alleged that Swiss-British national Patrick Mahony and Swiss-Saudi Tarek Obaid had helped set up a joint venture with 1MDB by creating the impression that their company, PetroSaudi, was backed by Saudi Arabia’s government.

This was not the case, but the accused managed to persuade 1MDB’s board into signing up to the scheme in 2009 before going on to defraud the fund, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, the two executives defrauded the wealth fund of $1.8bn to enrich themselves with Obaid getting at least $805m and Mahony at least $37m.

Obaid was sentenced to seven years in prison while Mahony received a sentence of six years.

Lawyers for the two men, who had denied wrongdoing, could not immediately be reached for comment by the Reuters news agency.

Prosecutors said the two men created the fraudulent scheme with fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low, an adviser to former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is in prison over his role in the multibillion-dollar scandal.

Initially extracting $1bn from 1MDB so it could buy a stake in their venture, the accused took a further $830m from the fund from 2010 to 2011 as part of an Islamic loan that followed on from their tie-up, prosecutors said.

From September 2009 to at least July 2015, the accused arranged for bank accounts to be opened in Switzerland to help launder the money, prosecutors said.

They used it to buy real estate in Switzerland and London, jewellery and private equity as well as to develop the PetroSaudi business, from which they received a sizeable income, and to maintain “a lavish lifestyle”, prosecutors said.

This year, 1MDB filed a lawsuit against Mahony seeking the return of the $1.83bn.

The 1MDB board lauded the convictions. “We welcome today’s verdict in Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court, which means that Patrick Mahony and Tarek Obaid will face justice for their role in embezzling and defrauding the people of Malaysia,” a 1MDB spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Malaysian and US investigators estimated a total of $4.5bn was syphoned away from 1MDB after its inception in 2009, implicating figures ranging from Razak, Goldman Sachs staff and high-level officials elsewhere.

Last year, a US court sentenced Ng Chong Hwa – known as “Roger Ng” – a Malaysian citizen and former manager at Goldman Sachs to 10 years in jail “for conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled” from 1MDB.

In June, the US Department of Justice said it helped recover an additional $156m in 1MDB funds for Malaysia, bringing the total money returned to Kuala Lumpur to about $1.4bn.

US prosecutors say 1MDB officials and their associates embezzled the money and spent it on a “variety of extravagant items, including luxury homes” and fine art.