The US administration did not know anything about human rights when it was witnessing the use of chemical weapons against Iran during the imposed war with Iraq, Zarif said on Saturday speaking at a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the 1981 Sardasht chemical attack.
“It does not recognize human rights when imposing sanctions. Washington does not even respect human rights in its economic terrorism,” he added.
The top diplomat underlined that in the tragedy of Sardasht, one can see two manifestations of humanity and savagery at the same time. However, Iran did not violate human principles in the face of savagery.
“Morality and the power of selfless people never let them go beyond the limits of humanitarian principles. The Iranian nation never retaliated and this honor was recorded for the Islamic Republic in history. Iran does not violate humanitarian principles in the face of oppression and savagery.”
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 weapons of mass destruction. The attack on Sardasht left 650 civilians killed.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarif mentioned the United Nations has repeatedly investigated both the Islamic Republic of Iran's concern over the use of chemical weapons by Iraq and the Iraqis' claims against Iran.
However, he said, in all of these investigations it has come to the firm conclusion that it was Saddam's regime that used chemical weapons.
The first time the UN Security Council condemned Iraq's use of chemical weapons was at the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Zarif underscored.
“Today, through its inhumane sanctions, the United States is preventing (export of) the medicine needed for chemical (warfare) victims; the drugs needed for other victims as well as the drugs needed for various patients,” stressed the Iranian foreign minister.
