SAEDNEWS: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the Islamic Republic, as the greatest victim of chemical weapons in contemporary history, is a staunch advocate of a world free of weapons of mass destruction.
According to SAEDNEWS, Araghchi made the remark in a message on Sunday on the occasion of the National Day of Combat against Chemical and Biological Weapons. The occasion commemorates the 38th anniversary of the chemical attack on the northwestern Iranian city of Sardasht by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
As the principal initiator of the initiative for a region free of nuclear weapons, Iran has consistently stood at the forefront of the struggle against such weapons, he said.
He added that Iran has never ceased its pursuit of justice for the victims of chemical warfare and firmly believes that the implementation of justice is a “necessary prerequisite” for preventing the recurrence of atrocities such as the chemical bombardment of Sardasht.
The Iranian foreign minister expressed his sincere hope that through collective determination and effort, the day will come when no human being shall fall victim to weapons of mass destruction, and that peace and amity shall replace war and violence.
On June 28, 1987, the Saddam regime dropped mustard gas bombs on Sardasht, killing at least 119 Iranian civilians and injuring another 8,000, leaving some of them permanently disabled.
Western countries- including Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, France, and the United States- contributed to the Iraqi regime’s chemical weapons program at the time.
Araghchi said credible evidence and substantiated documentation confirm that certain Western countries, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, have provided Saddam’s regime with chemical substances, technologies, and the necessary equipment, enabling it to employ chemical weapons against the Iranian people.
He added that the West’s support, along with the repugnant silence of the international community, emboldened the Saddam regime to persist in its atrocities and further violate international law with impunity.
Araghchi further noted that the world has been witnessing in recent days the assassination of Iranian women and children, ordinary civilians, university professors, nuclear scientists, and senior military and civilian officials “at the hands of some of the most cunning and malevolent terrorists” of the era who are based in Tel Aviv.
“Those same Western countries have aligned themselves with the aggressor, offering de facto support for its acts of aggression and its violations of international law and the Charter of the United Nations,” the top Iranian diplomat emphasized.
He warned that the Israeli regime’s attacks on Iran’s critical infrastructure, including facilities involved in the production of industrial chemical materials, pose the risk of a grave humanitarian and environmental catastrophe.
He noted that Iran has formally called for the convening of an emergency session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in order to examine and condemn such inhumane attacks.
At the end of his message, Araghchi paid tribute to the fortitude, perseverance, solidarity, unity, and resilience of the proud Iranian nation in confronting the recent aggression by the Zionist regime and the United States.
In the early hours of June 13, the Israeli regime launched an all-out aggression on Iranian soil by targeting various military and nuclear sites, claiming the lives of dozens of top military commanders and nuclear scientists as well as ordinary civilians.
On June 22, the United States joined the Israeli regime in the assault and bombed three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
A day later, Iran launched a wave of missiles at al-Udeid air base in Qatar—the largest American military base in West Asia—in retaliation for the aggression.
As the Iranian armed forces pounded Israel and its military and industrial infrastructure, using many new-generation missiles that precisely hit the designated targets, the embattled regime was forced to unilaterally declare a truce deal on June 24.
