Situation in the Gaza Strip – Letter from Iran

    Identical letters dated 12 December 2008 from the Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and to the President of the Security Council

  As you are well aware, the world community is yet again witnessing, in anguish and pain, the heartbreaking and tragic situation that the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip, are facing as a result of the heinous crimes of the Israeli regime. It is unfortunate and outrageous that in the twenty-first century we are witnessing that a criminal regime is perpetrating some of the most horrendous crimes ever committed in the history of mankind against innocent people, with full impunity. More than 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip are starved, massacred and deliberately kept deprived, by the said regime, of the most basic services and goods that they need to remain alive.

  A whole population is being slowly eliminated before the eyes of the international community, and the efforts of the people around the globe to help those in need in the Gaza Strip are fiercely rejected and prevented by the Israeli officials. It is long overdue for the United Nations and the Security Council to take urgent and meaningful action in order to counter these atrocities and war crimes against the Palestinian people and to help alleviate the suffering and pain of the people in the Gaza Strip. Silence on the part of the international community is not an option, nor is it justifiable. Hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children, are looking at the United Nations and the international community at large, in despair and hopelessness, while under constant threat and war crimes of the Israeli regime. We should not leave them alone. This is what the founders of the United Nations expected from this Organization: to come to help the people in need and in danger.

  In such a situation, where the international community is gravely concerned about the criminal Israeli policies and practices in the Gaza Strip and other parts of the occupied Palestinian territories, the said regime, in a well-known yet tired practice, resorts to any means in order to divert attention from where it is — and must be — focused, i.e. its horrendous atrocities in the Gaza Strip. The letter of the said regime’s representative to you on 11 December 2008, in which certain baseless allegations and absurd distortions are raised against my country, is an example in this regard. As stated in our previous communications, the Islamic Republic of Iran has never threatened nor does it have any intention to threaten other nations. The Israeli regime has made these baseless distortions and allegations against my country in its letter, while ignoring the fact that its officials continue their daily barrage of insolent threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its officials. Some of those Israeli threats against my country have already been communicated to the Security Council and the Secretary-General, including through this Mission’s letters that are circulated as documents (A/61/571-S/2006/884, A/61/954-S/2007/354, A/62/705-S/2008/117, S/2008/377 and S/2008/599).

  Emboldened by the absence of any action on the part of the United Nations, the said regime continues its abhorrent crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and persist in its vicious threats against the nations that show sympathy to the innocent Palestinian people, including against my country and our officials. As the latest example in this regard, the former Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Moshe Boogie Ya’alon, told the Sydney Morning Herald , an Australian newspaper, in late November 2008: “We have to consider killing him (President Ahmadinejad) … all options must be considered”. To display the aggressive and warmongering nature of the Israeli regime even more, Ya’alon went on to say: “I was surprised when the US decided to go into Iraq instead of Iran in 2003.” These dangerous threats of resorting to criminal and terrorist acts against the officials of a sovereign country, or threatening to use force against a Member of the United Nations, constitute blatant violations of international law, are against the most fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and require a clear and resolute response on the part of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council.

  I would appreciate it if you could bring the contents of the present letter to the attention of the members of the Security Council and circulate it as a document of the Council.

(Signed ) Mohammad Khazaee

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

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