Tehran, 26 October 2023 (TDI): Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, has taken a strong stance on the ongoing conflict in Gaza, addressing a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk.
In this letter, Amirabdollahian vigorously condemned what he described as the “Zionist regime’s gross and systematic violation” of Palestinian human rights.
Amirabdollahian expressed his profound concern over the plight of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, emphasizing that the region had been under assault by the Israeli regime for two consecutive weeks.
This ongoing conflict has resulted in the tragic deaths and injuries of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, and substantial destruction of residential buildings, civilian facilities, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, places of worship, and even United Nations centers.
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The Iranian Foreign Minister went further, asserting that the rhetoric of Israeli regime authorities and the large-scale, systematic attacks by Zionist troops in Gaza suggested that this was nothing short of a campaign for the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Amirabdollahian noted that the intensity of these attacks indicated a grim intention to carry out mass killings.
Alarming statistics were presented in the letter, citing a report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which estimated that over 700 children had been killed in Gaza, with 2,450 more children injured since the beginning of the conflict on October 7.
Amirabdollahian highlighted that the Israeli regime’s actions, such as the forced displacement of Palestinians and its entry into Gaza for what he described as “ethnic cleansing,” were in stark contradiction with international law.
The imposition of a “total blockade” by the Israeli regime, which had resulted in a dire shortage of essential resources, demonstrated the Palestinian people’s lack of safety in the Gaza Strip.
The Foreign Minister emphasized that the Israeli regime’s leaders had consistently ignored and violated international human and humanitarian rights, a pattern that had been enabled by an unacceptable level of impunity.
He called on the international community, including the highest UN human rights body, to take decisive action to hold the Zionist regime accountable for its actions.
In closing, Amirabdollahian reiterated the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strong condemnation of what he characterized as the “gross and systematic violation” of Palestinian human rights by the Israeli regime.
He expressed his expectation that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with other UN human rights mechanisms, would intervene promptly to halt the Israeli regime’s attacks and ensure that those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity were held accountable for their actions.
