Iranian Diplomat Criticizes West's Human Rights Hypocrisy on Iraq Invasion Anniversary
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - As the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq approaches, a senior Iranian diplomat has pointed out the hypocrisy of the West on human rights.
Iranian Judiciary deputy chief for international affairs Kazem Gharibabadi tweeted that during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, the US and its allies had armed Saddam Hussein’s regime with chemical weapons, which were then used to kill thousands of Iranian and Iraqi civilians.
Gharibabadi specifically cited the 13,000 deaths and 130,000 injured in Iran, including 130 killed and 8,000 injured in Sardasht, and the 5,000 killed and 10,000 injured in Halabja.
“Attn: human rights advocates: this is also a crime against humanity. Please deal with it,” Gharibabadi added.
Although the US fell out with Saddam Hussein after Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq and the US were close partners during the Iran-Iraq War. The US and its NATO allies provided weapons, dual-use technology, and military technology to Baghdad after a string of defeats reversed Iraq’s fortunes. The sale of chemical weapon precursors and chemical warfare equipment was also included.
After the war, Iraq acknowledged that it had used 1,800 tons of mustard gas, 600 tons of sarin gas, and 140 tons of tabun, a toxic nerve agent against Iran. Iraq began to destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles in the 1990s after being required to do so by the United Nations Security Council.
By the time of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein had already eliminated the country's chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction programs, forcing the Bush administration to fabricate evidence of Iraqi WMDs as a pretext to justify the invasion.
