Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Gharibabadi said the lack of veracity to the Western support and respect for the human rights was particularly visible in light of Western states’ complicity in former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons during Baghdad’s 1980-88 imposed war on Iran.
"Today, I visited a group of the nation's heroes, the resilient chemical warfare veterans, at Sasan Hospital [in the capital Tehran]," Gharibabadi said in a social media post on Friday.
"Seeing their pain and suffering harrowed me, and witnessing their spirit of patience and perseverance, and that of their families, made me envy them."
He described the veterans as a “living embodiment” of the empty nature of the West’s human rights claims, singling out countries like Germany for their historical role in enabling Iraq’s chemical weapons capabilities under Saddam.
German complicity
The Iranian official was referring to documented involvement by German companies in supplying precursor materials and technical know-how to Saddam’s regime, which carried out repeated chemical attacks against Iranian servicemen and civilians during the war.
"The passage of time does not diminish Germany’s responsibility for its partnership in the war crimes committed by Saddam’s regime," he said.
Gharibabadi also pointed to the Islamic Republic’s having formally proposed establishment of a bilateral fact-finding mechanism with Germany to investigate Berlin’s role in the development of Iraq’s chemical arsenal.
According to the diplomat, this initiative was rooted in two fundamental human rights principles, namely “truth and justice.”
Iran continues to suffer the consequences of chemical warfare carried out by Saddam’s Ba’athist regime, which was heavily supported by several Western states during the war.
Thousands of Iranian civilians and military personnel were exposed to mustard gas and other lethal agents in attacks that rights groups and legal experts have described as war crimes.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly called on the international community, especially Western governments, to acknowledge their roles in arming Saddam’s regime and to provide compensation and medical assistance to the victims.
Tehran has also roundly rejected the culpable states’ symbolic gestures towards apparent assumption of responsibility for the atrocities, saying the gestures fall far short of the accountability owed to the victims.