Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said on Friday that the Western countries involved in selling arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE will be held responsible in the history for war crimes in Yemen. RNA - Speaking on the occasion of the National Day of Combating Microbial and Chemical Weapons on June 29, Brigadier General Hatami said today that the Western countries, with their false claims on defending human rights, must be held accountable for their arms assistance in the killing of innocent people in Yemen.
The continuation of the killing of innocent people of region, specially the oppressed people of Yemen, with Western weapons is another evidence of criminal acts committed by these governments which will go down in the history, he underlined.
The Iranian officail was referring to huge arms deals between sellers in the US, the UK and France and the monarchs of Saudi Arabia and the UAE who are waging an unfair war on Yemen for the past 5 years.
“This day reminds us of one of the other aspects of the crimes committed by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in using chemical weapons against our soldiers and defenseless people in border cities and villages during the eight years of Scared Defense (1980-1988)," he added.
He then noted the West’s attempt to deny its role in arming Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons and to downplay the enormity of the crime, adding, “these countries acknowledged that more than 20,000 Iranian soldiers and civilians were martyred by Saddam’s chemical weapons.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Brigadier General Hatami pointed to the West’s admission that as many as 30 chemical attacks were carried out by Saddam Hussein on Iran’s civilian centers such as hospitals and healthcare services, adding “the chemical bombing of Iran’s Sardasht was the culmination of these heinous crimes committed by the then Iraqi government on June 28, 1987 which martyred and injured 4,500 people."
The Iranian minister of defense said that the key role of some Western countries, including the United States, in equipping Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons is now clear to the international community and global public opinions.
According to Fars News Agancy, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed more than 20,000 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children. Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fueled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods. The blockade on Yemen has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent state.
The UN has repeatedly criticized the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition's bombing campaign and placed it on a blacklist of child rights violators last year.
A UN panel has also compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.
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