Ali Bagheri made the remarks in an event on Monday commemorating the victims of chemical attacks by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime on the Iranian city of Sardasht in 1987, whose effects continue to plague the wounded besides leaving dozens dead on the spot.
The caretaker foreign minister said, “While we are holding this ceremony, the bitter reality and immediate threat we are facing is the continuation of nine months of genocide and aggression by the Zionist regime in Gaza, whose effects and consequences are exactly the same as the use of weapons of mass destruction.”
He added, “Today, the people in Palestine and Gaza are victims of the Zionist regime’s genocide, and appeasement by the international community, especially the Western countries, has made the regime even more reckless in killing women and children.”
The Iranian diplomat said those who were backing the Iraqi dictator in the 1980s war against Iran are today direct partners in the Israeli regime’s genocide in Gaza, which has so far claimed the lives of nearly 37,000 Palestinians.
Bagheri also said Iran has not given up in the legal fight against the West to restore the rights of Iranian victims of the chemical attacks.
