Smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip – Letter from Iran

Identical letters dated 16 March 2012 from the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council 

 With reference to the letter of the representative of the Israeli regime dated 12 March 2012 (S/2012/148), in which certain unfounded allegations and distortions were made against the Islamic Republic of Iran, I wish to state the following: 

 The Islamic Republic of Iran categorically rejects the allegations concerning the so-called “smuggling of advanced weaponry” into the Gaza Strip, which are based on false and misleading information provided by the Zionist regime. Iran’s support for the peoples of Palestine has been of a moral, humanitarian and political nature. It is not the first time that the Israeli regime, in a futile exercise to distract the international community’s attention from its crimes and atrocities against the Palestinians, 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 the last few days, this regime has attacked several times the defenceless Palestinians in Gaza, resulting in the death of and injury to a number of innocent civilians. 

 In the aforesaid letter, the representative of the Israeli regime talks about security and peace and stability in the Middle East region. Iran has been, and will remain, resolute in its support for stability and security in the Middle East, while the Israeli regime has been the only source of tension and violence in the region for decades. Undoubtedly, the Israeli regime fabricates these groundless allegations in order to distract the international community’s attention from the atrocities it has committed against the peoples in the region. 

 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 Charter of the United Nations. 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.

 It would be appreciated if this letter could be circulated as a document of the Security Council. 

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