In a meeting marking the anniversary of the chemical attack on the Iranian city of Sardasht, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations office in Geneva Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh elaborated on Iraq’s use of chemical weapons during the eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Hamaneh noted that the United States, Germany, Netherlands, and some other European counties had undeniable roles in providing Saddam’s regime with chemical weapons.
The Iranian diplomat said that it was a moral and legal responsibility for all governments to cooperate to compensate the victims and survivors of the attacks and that the governments that supplied chemical material used in making chemical weapons had international responsibility to investigate, prosecute, and punish individuals and entities involved.
He urged countries involved in providing Saddam’s regime with the chemicals to discover and reveal the truth regarding the attacks.
Hamaneh mentioned the trial of the Dutch citizen Frans van Anraat charged with sending chemical materials to Iraq and called for similar measures by other countries.
During the meeting, three Iranian medical specialists gave details on the symptoms the victims of the chemical attack still suffer from. Moreover, a video of interviews with the victims was played, depicting their pain doubled by the shortage of medicine due to US sanctions.
Saddam’s army launched a chemical attack on the northwestern Iranian city of Sardasht, leaving 8,000 people of the city’s 12,000-strong population maimed.
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