TEHRAN – Iran's acting Foreign Minister, Ali Baqeri Kani, has paid tribute to the victims of the chemical attacks on Sardasht, a northwestern city, which occurred forty years ago.

In a statement issued on Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the chemical bombings and the National Day of Fight against Chemical and Biological Weapons, Baqeri Kani highlighted that sanctions by Western governments and the U.S. have hindered the provision of medical supplies and equipment necessary for treating Iran's chemical attack survivors.

The statement reads:

In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful 

While honoring the memory of the martyrs of service, late President Ebrahim Raisi, late Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and their companions, I would like to pay respect wholeheartedly to the martyrs of the chemical attacks, especially the martyrs of the cowardly chemical attack on the city of Sardasht by Iraq’s former Ba’athist regime, and ask God the Almighty to grant health and well-being to the honorable chemical veterans, who patiently endure the ordeal caused by the use of these inhumane weapons.

Choosing the anniversary of the chemical bombing of Sardasht as the National Day of Combating Chemical and Biological Weapons is meant to explain the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran is both the biggest victim of the widespread use of chemical arms in contemporary history and is firmly resolved to oppose such armaments. The extent of the Saddam regime's chemical attacks during the Iraqi imposed war that took place with the backing of some Western powers and the deadly silence of international organizations was such that no similar example can be found in contemporary history.

Hundreds of chemical attacks against Iranian forces and civilians in the cities and villages of the Islamic Republic of Iran resulted in the martyrdom and injury of more than 100,000 people. The bitter silence of the international bodies in the face of the use of WMDs against ordinary citizens and combatants on the fronts of the imposed war was one of the most prominent signs of Iran's being oppressed in this unequal confrontation. In return, the Islamic Republic of Iran adhered to its ethical and religious humanitarian obligations and refrained from taking any countermeasures against the use of these horrible arms.

The massive use of chemical arms by Saddam’s regime during the eight years of the sacred defense became possible due to the effective material, scientific, and technical support of some European governments and companies, especially Germany, the Netherlands, and Britain, and the extensive political, military, and diplomatic support of the United States and Britain for the war machine of that regime.

Today, damning documents prove that without extensive financial assistance, the export of technical and engineering know-how, materials, and equipment necessary for the manufacture and use of chemical weapons by the European and US governments to Iraq, Saddam was not able to produce and use these inhumane weapons.

Despite that the UN experts verified the continued use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and citizens, the same Western countries imposed a serious media and news blackout on the issue, and at the same time, they did not stop providing political, diplomatic, and military support to the Saddam regime. Even at the responsible international institutions and legal bodies, they prevented the voice of the Iranian nation from being heard and the proof of the rights and innocence of the chemical victims. Such inhumane and illegal actions will never be erased from the historical memory of the Iranian nation.

Lawsuits against the perpetrators of chemical attacks, and their accomplices, against the Islamic Republic of Iran will not be forgotten with the passage of time, and in addition to the trial of criminals in the court of human conscience and public opinion, national and international courts must also fulfill their responsibility in holding criminals accountable and reclaiming the moral and material rights of the chemical victims. It is necessary to take such measures, among other things, to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies in the future.

The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran will provide support for lawsuits against nationals and companies of other countries that are complicit in the crimes of Saddam's regime as part of its diplomatic efforts to protect its citizens.

During the past four decades, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has not given up any efforts to provide medical and healthcare services to the victims of chemical weapons in order to alleviate their suffering. However, in recent years, the provision of some medical items and equipment required for the treatment of chemical veterans has faced many problems due to the illegal and cruel unilateral sanctions of Western countries, especially the US. In this regard, I would like to stress that the repeated claim of the US regarding the exemption of humanitarian items from the sanctions is an obvious lie and completely false, and this issue has also been confirmed in the special rapporteur’s report on unilateral coercive measures.

The chemical veterans, as victims of the weapons supplied by Western countries, are still victims of inhumane sanctions by the same states. 

Of course, such actions are an inseparable part of the nature of some Western governments, and the massive genocide of the child-killing Zionist regime in Gaza, which has been going on for the past nine months, is a clear example.

The very countries that fully supported Saddam to produce and use chemical weapons against Iran, including the oppressed women and children of Sardasht, today provide full support to the Zionist regime and are direct accomplices in the genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the Israeli regime in Gaza.

The same governments that block Iran’s access to medicine with embargoes are actually and openly supporting the Israeli regime’s move to prevent the delivery of food and medicine to the people of Gaza and to weaponize starvation as a war tactic.

The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the realization of the goals of the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the achievement of a world free of chemical weapons as highly important and continues its efforts to implement all the convention’s provisions in a complete, effective, balanced and non-discriminatory manner, especially to promote international cooperation in the field of peaceful use of science and chemicals and to help protect against chemical weapons.

Hosting the 11th international medical aid and protection course against chemical weapons in October 2023 in cooperation with the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with the aim of increasing the capacity and readiness of the member states of the organization in the face of using chemical weapons as well as industrial chemical incidents, is one of the measures the Islamic Republic of Iran has recently taken to that end.

In the end, I once again honor the memory of all the martyrs of the imposed war, especially the martyrs of the chemical attack on the city of Sardasht, and pray for the health and longevity of chemical veterans.