Smuggling of advanced weapons into the Gaza Strip – Letter from Iran

Letter dated 11 November 2011 from the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council 

 With reference to the letters of the representative of the Israeli regime dated 27 and 29 October 2011 (S/2011/671 and S/2011/674), 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 weapons 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, has resorted 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 the Gaza Strip and at the same time has prevented two international flotillas from delivering their humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza. 

 The relevant United Nations bodies have on numerous occasions expressed their indignation and frustration over such Israeli crimes and have unambiguously condemned them. For instance, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1967, in his report (A/HRC/16/72), has rightly described the Israeli acts against the Palestinian people such as “annexation”, “ethnic cleansing”, “apartheid”, “colonialist” and “criminality” as “more adequately expressing the actual nature of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories”. In his description of that situation, the said Rapporteur further corroborated the legal view that the existence of a humanitarian crisis is enough by itself to make the blockade “unlawful” and, by extension, regarded the interception of flotilla(s) containing humanitarian aid in international waters as a violation of international law. Furthermore, numerous United Nations reports have indicated that the crimes of the Israeli regime amount to “collective punishment” and have described the situation of the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip, as intolerable, appalling and tragic. 

 In the aforesaid letters, the representative of the Israeli regime has also made some remarks about the peace and stability in the Middle East. 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 groundless allegations that the Israeli regime fabricates 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. 

 I would be grateful if the present letter could be circulated as a document of the Security Council. 

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