In an address to the UN Security Council on Monday, Iran’s UN Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo condemned states that are promoting Iranophobia to be able to sell more arms in the region.
“Iran-phobic statements we hear these days are being actively perpetuated by those who are in need of creating a hypothetical enemy to sell arms and unleash an arms race in the region. This has nothing to do with peace and security in the Middle East,” he said, Mehr News Agency reported.
Experience in the past decade in the Middle East and North Africa shows that the era of regional and global hegemony has long passed, and any effort by any power to this end is an exercise in futility, he said.
“Instead of succumbing to foreign domination or trying to dominate others, countries in our region should try to create a stronger, more prosperous and more stable region.”
Arms exports constituted over 6% of the value of all US exports from 2007 to 2014. According to a recent report by the authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), between 2013 and 2017 the US extended its lead to 34% of total arms sales.
The Middle East market accounted for half (49%) of total US arms exports in the 2013-2017 period, the report mentions. Saudi Arabia is by far the leading buyer of US weapons.
Israeli Crimes
The Iranian envoy highlighted Tel Aviv’s crimes in the Middle East and said the occupying regime is “core and central to all conflicts” in the region.
“This e injustice has been continuing for more than seven decades, intensified through Israeli expansionist, aggressive and apartheid policies towards Palestinians and the region,” he said, referring to Israeli wars, lawlessness and crimes against backed by successive US governments.
He censured Israel’s overtly aggressive and expansionist policies and its behavior towards its neighbors, describing it as the main danger to peace and security in the volatile region.
“The new mass murder committed by Israel against unarmed Palestinian civilians is the latest in an old pattern followed by the Israeli regime during the past seven decades.”
At least 130 Palestinians, including 14 children, have been killed by Israeli security forces since the Right to Return rallies began in the Gaza Strip on March 30. About 13,300 Palestinians also sustained injuries, of them 300 are in critical condition.
Since 1948, the Israeli regime has denied Palestinian refugees the right to return, despite United Nations resolutions and international law that upholds people’s right to return to their homeland.
Syria Crisis
Khoshroo said Iran has always sought a political solution to the Syrian crisis which is based on respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Arab country.
“In the Syrian Arab Republic, since the beginning of the on-going tragedy, Iran has always called for a peaceful solution to the conflict, based on respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, as well as the right of the Syrian people to determine their own political future,” he said.
“Time and again, Iran has reiterated that there can be no military solution to the situation in Syria,” he told the council.
