Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Danny Danon should be on his way back to Israel, but the Israeli elections and importance of not leaving his spot empty have forced him to remain in New York.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Danon named the efforts to keep Iran in check as the UN's central challenge for the new year.
"If up until now there were disagreements on whether Iran was violating the deal, now there is no longer any doubt - Iran itself has told the entire world, 'We're violating the agreement and we promise to enrich even more uranium," he said.
"So the biggest question today is how the world will respond. We see determination from the US, but unfortunately we see great weakness on the part of many European countries, who bury their heads in the sand instead of dealing with the Iranian aggression."
Danon called on the world to paralyze Iran's emissaries around the world and follow the lead of Argentina, which banned Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terror group, earlier this week.
"This is a very important step and we are glad of it," he said. "We held an event in the UN together with the Argentinian ambassador, in order to mark the 25-year anniversary of the AMIA bombing of a Buenos Aires building belonging to the Jewish community. We expect the rest of the world's countries to follow Argentina's lead, to recognize Hezbollah as a terror organization, and to limit its activities."
Hezbollah, which is a proxy of Iran, has long been linked to the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people, and the 1994 AMIA attack.
"We need to remember that today as well, the Iranians use their emissaries as their front lines in advancing global terror. They use diplomatic mail in order to send materials for destruction, to pass intelligence information used for terror activities even on European soil. We therefore call upon the world to awaken and join the condemnation of the Hezbollah organization," he added.
Meanwhile, as Israel prepares for a second round of elections, its UN delegation is preparing for the General Assembly, scheduled to be held in September. Danon believes that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will attend the General Assembly, despite the fact that it will be just after election day.
"The General Assembly begins the week after Israel's elections, but regardless, Netanyahu is the Prime Minister and I believe he will be chosen for another term. It would be fitting for him to come and speak before the Assembly, despite the fact that it is a delicate period in the forming of a government. The influence on the international world is important, and I intend to suggest the Prime Minister attend the Assembly."
Danon also discussed his plans for after his term ends: "When I finish my term, I intend to continue public activities, to contribute and to make my voice heard. I intend to use the large amount of experience I gained here over four years, a wealth of international experience, in order to strengthen Israel in international forums."
The political "bug" in him is still alive, as well: "I intend to return to public activities. In the upcoming elections, I'll only be able to come and vote, but obviously I won't be a candidate because I'm a government employee in the United Nations. In the future, I'll return to politics and make my voice heard in the clearest way possible."
One of Danon's goals during his term was to balance out the anti-Israel discourse at the United Nations.
"I don't know if we can talk about balance, but there's definitely been a change," he said. "The delegation here does a lot of work and my approach has been that every week, we initiate an event. We are controlling priorities, not just responding to the Palestinians' activities. At the beginning they protested this approach, but they understood and got used to the fact that we are a proud country which has what to show the world. We definitely have managed to create in the UN building a set of priorities which is positive towards Israel."