Larijani urges UN to stop Saudi aggression against Yemen

Secretary of Iran’s Human Rights Council Mohammad Javad Larijani on Sunday called on the UN to take serious action to end the Saudi aggression against Yemen.

In separate letters to the UN Chief, Ban Ki-moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Larijani referred to the grave humanitarian situation in Yemen and called for serious action on the part of the UN to put an end to the Saudi aggression against Yemen.

Larijani, in the letters, urged Ban and Ra’ad Al Hussein to fulfill their duty as per Rome Statute 1998 criminalizing the use of force and aggression on sovereign nations.

He said perpetrators of aggression and use of force should be held accountable before The Hague-based International Criminal Court.

Larijani expressed outrage at the killing of more than 3000 people, including 700 women and children, and maiming more than 10,000 innocent civilians by Saudi airstrikes.

Larijani said under Article 23 of the Geneva Convention IV, the International Humanitarian Law, the governments are required to allow free shipment of medical and food supplies to the people trapped in conflict.

He said that the IHL 1949 envisaged respect for the people’s right to have food and drinking water in the course of armed conflicts.

Many Yemeni citizens are incapable of meeting their main food requirements, said the official, adding that practices of the coalition formed against Yemen are flagrant violations of Article 54 of the first additional protocol to the four Geneva Conventions and are considered war crimes and crime against humanity based on the IHL 1949.

He said that refusal to allow shipment of humanitarian supplies amounts to collective punishment of the Yemeni people.

Larijani said any intervention on part of any government or coalition is manifest breach of the Rome Statue 1998.

“I should recall that use of force in any form is forbidden under the international law,” he said in the letter.