Addressing the Twenty-Fourth Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention on Monday, Gholamhossein Dehghani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs recalled the 32nd anniversary of the Saddam regime’s chemical attacks on civilian Iranians in the city of Sardasht.
Dehghan also recalled the participants that 22 years after the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force on 29 April 1997 the international aid to victims of chemical attacks was insignificant.
The senior Iranian diplomat further referred to the US unilateral sanctions on Iran as inhumane and disgraceful economic terrorism, saying that the US bans have made it difficult for the victims of the chemical weapons in Iran to receive necessary medical treatment.
He further urged the international community to counter the US sanctions as they are in blatant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
He also called on the member states to intensify their efforts to assist chemical weapons victims and oppose the US actions in preventing the transfer of chemicals and equipment, including pharmaceutical raw materials, to member states as a crime against humanity.
He went on to point out that the United States as the only state that possesses chemical weapons is a threat to international peace and security and called for the elimination and monitoring of the US chemical weapons as soon as possible by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
The Iranian deputy foreign minister also noted that CWC is a universal convention, describing the Zionist regime's stubborn refusal to join the Convention as a major obstacle to the realization of the convention's universality.
He further called on the member states to force Israel to join the CWC.
KI/IRN83568909