Abdollahian Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the UNSC High-Level Meeting on the Implementation of Resolution 2217

The text of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahians speech was scheduled to be read out by the foreign minister at Wednesday’s meeting of the United Nations Security Council but as the United States delayed in issuing visas for the Iranian delegation it was not possible for the delegation to attend the event. So the speech will be delivered by the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran in New York for the United Nations’ record.

Statement by Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the UNSC High-Level Meeting on the Implementation of Resolution 2217

New York-29 November 2023

 

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

 

Mr. President, Your Excellency Mr. Wang Yi the Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China

Distinguished Delegates

Assalamu Alyakum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

I am delighted to share with you in this important meeting of the United Nations Security Council some points on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

This meeting is convening today on the 29th of November which was named 46 years ago by the General Assembly after the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. We take it as a good omen. Holding such a meeting to attract attentions to the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is of immense significance and value per se. However, such meetings will really prove fruitful only if they culminate in tangible measures to alleviate the pain and malady of the oppressed people of Palestine and ensure a permanent cessation of interminable genocide of Palestinians especially in Gaza.  

We must courageously and frankly admit that the United Nations, and in particular the Security Council, so far, has failed to fulfill their legal and moral responsibilities towards Palestinians and the question of Palestine. Such failure is greatly blamed on the unquestionable support the United States is giving to the occupying regime and preventing any effective measures to make Israel accountable. This is in fact an ethical fiasco and depreciation of conscience for the international community and the United Nations system. Notwithstanding, the main responsibility rests with the powers that adamantly prevent the Security Council from fulfilling its roles as enshrined in the UN Charter.  

More than any other time, reference is made today to Resolution 2217—a resolution which is considered a small step on the right direction, even though it was approved belatedly and with poor substance. Nevertheless, this resolution needs to be strongly enforced and followed. The natural expectation of the international community was that the Security Council would take an action immediately after the start of indiscriminate attacks on Gaza and prevent the further murder of innocent humans. Who can camouflage that the all-out aggression of the occupying regime against Gaza, as one of the most densely-populated regions of the world which has been under absolute blockade for more than 17 years, as well as the killing of thousands of innocent people more than 70 percent of whom women and children, do not constitute a threat to international peace and security? The intensity and volume of the killing of civilians during 50 days of disproportionate attacks on Gaza are unprecedented. The number of children and women killed in Gaza alone far exceeds the total number of women and children killed in various conflicts across the world during the past year including the war in Ukraine. This is while the murder and suppression machine of the racist regime has killed or wounded more than 3,100 Palestinians in the West Bank in just two months as reported by the New York Times on November 25.

Who can ignore the reality that blind and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza by 2,000-pound bombs and other prohibited weapons such as phosphorous bombs, which make no exception for hospitals, schools, mosques and churches, contain all the elements of grave international crimes including war crime, genocide and crime against humanity? How can one justify the inaction of the Security Council towards the horrible human catastrophe in Gaza?

 

Mr. President    

Now the Security Council and its member are posed to a very severe test. Under circumstances in which the besieged and occupied Gaza is under the most savage military attacks and has lost more than 16,000 of its children of whom 6,000 are minors and 4,000 are women, and under circumstances in which more than half of northern Gaza has been reduced to rubble, nothing other than guaranteeing a complete cessation of the criminal attacks of Israel can partly compensate the moral shame of the international community before the people of Palestine and the Muslim world. 

One must be alert that humanitarian pause, while being partly fruitful, is not turned into a tool for cleaning the past crimes and create an opportunity for perpetrating new murders.  

 

Mr. President

The Palestine tragedy as a human, moral and legal issue with global dimensions, did not begin as of October 7. The occupier regime and its supporters and defenders should not be permitted to distort the reality and spread lies and disinformation aimed at marginalizing and overshadowing the long reality of occupation, suppression, humiliation and genocide of a nation for more than eight decades. Violence and conflict in the Middle East have never been a choice of the people of Palestine and the nations of the region. Violence is a commodity imposed on our region as the result of the occupation and racial megalomania of the Zionist ideology. The continued and suppressive occupation which began as of 1920 was institutionalized in 1948 and caused forced displacement of one million Palestinians and was later expanded through force and military coercion, and continues to date through the seizure and confiscation of Palestinian lands and expansion of illegal settlements. All these reflect and represent a racist and narcissistic mentality which regards no human rights for the people under occupation. Murdering and exterminating the people of Palestine should not become normalized. This is a legal and moral obligation and duty in accordance with the joint article one of the four Geneva conventions of 1949 and the Genocide Convention of 1948. Perpetrators must not be allowed to play the victim and evade accountability and responsibility before the international community and keep on genociding the Palestinian nation by resorting to and misusing the crimes committed by others decades ago in another continent against the Jews and by accusing critics of anti-Semitism. The legitimate and legal resistance of the Palestinian nation to achieve the right to self-determination as well as defending human rights and human dignity of Palestinians are an entitlement admitted in the UN Charter and international law. And no person, state or organization cannot depose Palestinian of such an entitlement. Branding the legitimate struggle of the people of Palestine for their self-determination right as terrorism is the blatant and deliberate violation of the UN Charter and the peremptory norms of international law and is Immoral and reprehensible.

 

Mr. President

Distinguished colleagues

The Islamic Republic of Iran, within the framework of its principled policy of opposing aggression and use of force in international relations as well as occupation, racism and racial discrimination, and in line with its responsible policy to safeguard regional and international peace and security, continues to support the legitimate and lawful movement of the Palestinian nation to eliminate occupation and apartheid imposed on Palestine.

Under the present conditions, what needs be the priority of the UN Security Council and all governments is to guarantee a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, prevent the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland, and immediately deliver humanitarian assistance such as food and medicine to the people of Gaza and reconnect electricity and fuel.

All Palestinians, including seven million refugees and Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are directly and indirectly mourning their lost loved ones. The majority of the population of Gaza has lost their houses and properties during the Israeli attacks. The world cannot remain indifferent to this obvious cruelty, which is a gross violation of human rights and humanitarian rights and constitutes an example of the most severe international crimes. Impunity of the designers, perpetrators and accomplices of these atrocity crimes is a license and incentive for repeating such crimes. Based on this, the trial and administer of justice for the perpetrators of these crimes should be placed high on the agenda of the international community. Governments that for decades have presented themselves as self-proclaimed claimants of human rights and humanitarian rights, and have greatly utilized international mechanisms as a tool to tarnish and smear developing states, under the pretext of violating human rights - on very small scales and incomparable to what happened in Gaza - have failed in the test of honesty and true belief in their claims. Hypocrisy and double standards in relation to human rights will distort the rule of law in international relations and prepare the ground further for criminals and violators of international law.

This is not something to be appreciated by any responsible and peace-seeking state.

With the hope of liberation of the people of Palestine from the yoke of the occupation and suppression of occupiers.

I thank you for your attention.