Defense Minister Amir Hatami highlighted western support for terrorist groups in West Asia and cautioned against “organized chemical terrorism” in the region.
In a statement released on Friday to commemorate the anniversary of the 1987 chemical bombing of the northwestern city of Sardasht by the Iraqi army under former dictator Saddam Hussein, the general described Iran as “the biggest victim of chemical weapons,” Tasnim News Agency reported.
“Months before the chemical attack on Sardasht, the US as a self-appointed defender of human rights vetoed a statement (not a resolution) by the majority of UN Security Council members, which condemned the use of chemical weapons by the Iraqi government,” the defense minister recalled.
Located in Iran's northwestern province of West Azarbaijan, Sardasht was the third city in the world after Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki to become a target of the banned chemical weapons.
On June 28 and 29, 1987, Iraqi bombers attacked 4 crowded parts of Sardasht with chemical bombs targeting women and children, young and old, with poison gas. The attacks killed 116 citizens and injured thousands more.
OPCW
“Two decades after the establishment of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), we are facing concerns about peace and security in the region,” Hatami stated.
He added that the US has violated international law and regulations of the UN Security Council and the OPCW and conducted a military attack on Syria under the pretext that the Arab country used chemical weapons that led to more insecurity in the West Asia region.
“This incident will definitely lead to new and serious threats and challenges to the future of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” the statement quoted the defense chief as saying.
The US, Britain and France blamed the Syrian government for a chemical weapons attack on April 7 that reportedly killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 1,000 others in Douma.
They accused the government in Damascus for the attack and carried out a string of missile strikes on a number of targets on the war-ravaged country on April 14.
