US complies with no human rights principles: Iran’s FM Zarif

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the United States has failed to observe any human rights principles, either by providing chemical weapons to Iraq against Iran or imposing sanctions and pursuing economic terrorism against the Iranian people.

According to Press TV, Zarif made the remarks in a video conference held on Saturday to mark a deadly chemical attack by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on the Iranian city of Sardasht in West Azarbaijan Province in 1987.

"Even in the battle against the coronavirus and the recent catastrophic pandemic which has affected the entire world…the US government is continuing this path," he said.

He added that the US is creating obstacles in the way of supplying medicines desperately required by victims of chemical weapons and people with different diseases in Iran through its "inhumane sanctions."

As the Islamic Republic managed to stand against Iraq's chemical weapons, it has also succeeded in fighting the virus despite all sanctions, he said.

Pointing to the US’ history of crimes against the Iranian and regional nations, Zarif added, "The Iranian people have truly witnessed such [criminal] moves during the [Iraqi] imposed war, economic war, economic terrorism and state terrorism of the United States of America."

The top Iranian diplomat emphasized that the use of chemical weapons has only brought disgrace to perpetrators of such crimes.

The US, the UK, Germany, Italy, and Holland were among the countries that provided Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist Iraq with the equipment and material to build chemical weapons.

Iraq made the most of its acquisitions by launching over 350 large-scale chemical attacks along the Iran-Iraq border between 1980 and 1988 on soldiers and civilians alike, using mustard gas, and the nerve agents VX, Tabun, and Sarin.

This left Iran with over 107,000 victims, 2,600 of whom died at the time. Over 45,000 others were left in permanent need of relief aid provided by Iran’s Veterans and War Victims Foundation.

Sardasht was just one of the civilian areas to experience the devastating effects of mustard gas and nerve agents.

ME