TEHRAN - Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, the permanent representative of Iran to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, has criticized Germany for not being accountable for its role in equipping Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime with chemical weapons.

He made the remarks at a United Nations’ plenary session on disarmament held in Geneva on Tuesday, according to ISNA. 

Baghaei recalled that Germany provided the raw materials used for building chemical weapons to the former Iraqi regime, saying that the German government has a responsibility to seriously consider the issue.

The Iranian diplomat emphasized “all natural persons and legal entities that had a role, in whatever manner, in arming the former Iraqi dictator with chemical weapons are accomplices to Saddam Hussein’s war crimes, and this fact will not slip into oblivion with the passage of time.”

Although Baghaei sharply criticized the German ambassador to the UN, who had said that the issue goes back four decades and that the raising of the issue is unjustifiable, he welcomed comments by the German envoy who claimed his country is prosecuting German firms involved in selling materials for chemical arms to the former Iraqi regime.
 
“The issue of Saddam Hussein’s regime using chemical arms and German companies’ complicity with him will not fade away in Iranian people’s memory,” Ambassador Baghaei remarked. 

“It is felt wholeheartedly by the oppressed victims of these weapons, who are still suffering from the complications of the wounds caused by these arms,” the envoy lamented. 

He said Iran expects the German government to publicly announce the outcome of its probes, including investigations into German officials’ involvement or failure to prevent the illegal transfer of materials used in chemical arms to Iraq.

EE/PA