TEHRAN – Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said on Friday that Western countries must be held accountable for their arms assistance in the killing of innocent people in Yemen.

Western countries, including the U.S., France, Britain, Germany, have been selling advanced arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in their relentless bombing campaign against Yemen since March 2015.

The continuation of the killing of innocent people of region, especially the oppressed people of Yemen, using Western weapons is another evidence of the atrocities committed by those countries, General Hatami said, Mehr reported.

He made the remarks in a statement on Friday on the anniversary of the 1987 chemical bombing of the northwestern city of Sardasht by the Iraqi army under former dictator Saddam Hussein.

“This day reminds us of one of the other aspects of the crimes committed by the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in using chemical weapons against our soldiers and defenseless people in border cities and villages during the eight years of the Scared Defense (Iran-Iraq war),” Hatami stated.

He also pointed to the West’s attempts to deny its role in arming Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons and to downplay the large extent of such crime, adding, “These countries acknowledged that more than 20,000 Iranian soldiers and civilians were martyred by Saddam’s chemical weapons.”

MH/PA