Mideast situation – Letter from Iran

Letter dated 7 April 2008 from the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

With reference to the letters of the representative of the Israeli regime addressed to the President of the Security Council dated 25 February and 20 March 2008 (S/2008/131 and S/2008/189), in which certain unfounded allegations and distortions are made against the Islamic Republic of Iran, I wish to state the following:

Iran’s support for the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon has been of a moral, humanitarian and political nature and, therefore, the allegations and distortions made in the said letters against my country are groundless and rejected. It is not the first time that the Israeli regime — in a futile exercise to distract the international community’s attention from its horrible acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing and collective punishment against the Palestinians and other Arab peoples in the region — resorts to a campaign of distortion, slander and fabrication against others.

In the past six decades, the international community has been witnessing various acts of war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Israeli regime has mercilessly committed against others — especially the Palestinians — with impunity. Only in the course of last few weeks, this regime has perpetrated one of its most abhorrent atrocities against the defenceless Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The relevant United Nations bodies have, on numerous occasions expressed their indignation and frustration over such Israeli crimes and have unambiguously condemned them. As an instance, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has rightly described the Israeli behaviour against the Palestinian people as acts that “certainly resemble apartheid”. In his description of that situation, the said Rapporteur has further stressed that the Israeli regime “has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians and has thrown away the key”, and has added that this crime is “ethnic cleansing”. Based on the same United Nations reports, the crimes of the Israeli regime amount to “collective punishment” and have made the situation for the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip, “intolerable, appalling and tragic”. In the same context, just a few days ago, in yet another sign of the international community’s deep anguish and concern over the criminal practices of the said regime, the officials of the World Health Organization described the Israeli regime’s behaviour against the Palestinian people as “inhuman” and as practices that “show nonsense and inhumanity”.

In the aforesaid letters, the representative of the Israeli regime has also made baseless allegations against my country with regard to the alleged violation of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006). Ironically, to back its unfounded allegations, the said regime has cited the same fabrications that had been presented by itself for the recent reports of the Secretary-General on resolution 1701 (2006). My country has unequivocally rejected these baseless allegations in the past, and wishes to hereby reject them again. It is noteworthy that in the same reports of the Secretary-General on resolution 1701 (2006), it has been emphasized time and again that the Israeli regime has violated, and continues to violate, various provisions of Security Council resolution 1701 (2006). In this regard, and only as an example, I wish to refer to the contents of the most recent report of the Secretary-General on resolution 1701 (2006) (S/2008/135), which stresses that the United Nations is “concerned that Israeli air violations continue unabated … on an almost daily basis … and all Israeli overflights of Lebanese territory constitute violations of Lebanese sovereignty and of resolution 1701 (2006)”. The same report, along with many other United Nations reports, also refers to the continuation of Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory and its refusal to cooperate with the United Nations and the Government of Lebanon to locate the Israeli unexploded cluster munitions and landmines that continue to maim and kill civilians in southern Lebanon.

Undoubtedly, the Israeli regime’s unlawful behaviours, which plainly constitute a threat to international and regional peace and security, require urgent and serious attention on the part of the Security Council. Regrettably, the impunity with which the said regime has been allowed to carry out its crimes thus far has emboldened it to continue and even increase its blatant defiance of the most basic and fundamental principles of international law and the United Nations Charter.

It is, indeed, high time for the international community, and especially the Security Council, to take effective measures to counter the illegal and criminal policies and practices of the Israeli regime, and to put an end to its State terrorism against the Palestinian people and other peoples of the region.

I would be grateful if you could have the present letter circulated as a document of the Security Council and of the General Assembly, under agenda items 17, 18, 33 and 108.

(Signed) Mohammad Khazaee

Ambassador

Permanent Representative