Arab countries at UN slam Iran’s retaliatory strikes

GENEVA - Arab countries on March 2 slammed Iran’s

wave of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East

, decrying at the United Nations that Tehran had upended their attempts to avoid a regional escalation.

After the United States and Israel began striking Iran on Feb 28, Tehran launched a wave of reprisal attacks at targets across the Middle East.

The Group of Arab States told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Iran’s attacks were an “extremely grave” violation of international law that threatened regional stability.

“The Arab countries were seeking to bolster dialogue and openness. The is an unjustifiable escalation that destabilises all peace and stability efforts,” Saudi ambassador Abdulmohsen Binkhothaila said, speaking for the group.

The six Gulf Cooperation Council countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – plus Jordan – all hit by Tehran’s retaliation – also jointly condemned the “Iranian aggressions”, which came “despite our efforts to avoid escalation in the region”.

On Feb 26, Oman had mediated talks in Geneva between US and Iranian negotiators. Washington and Israel launched their attack two days later.

“We call for the immediate cessation of military actions... and return to dialogue because it’s the only way to solve disagreements,” said the sultanate’s deputy permanent representative Mohamed Al-Balushi.

Kuwait’s ambassador Naser Abdullah H. M. Alhayen added: “Terrorising the civilians in countries seeking peace is an abhorrent crime.

“Iran should resort to self-restraint and... wisdom and refrain from further military escalation,” he said.

‘Raw power’

Iran’s ambassador Ali Bahreini said his country was “under indiscriminate and invasive military attacks by the United States and the regime of Israel”.

He said Iran’s schools had been bombed, hospitals indiscriminately attacked, its leaders assassinated and “more than 160 innocent schoolgirls were massacred in Minab”.

“The deliberate killing of civilians” openly violates the UN Charter, he said, and the “ongoing, unlawful military aggression against Iran exemplifies the dominance of raw power over the principles of human rights”.

The European Union urged maximum restraint, while the African group said the situation was eroding trust among nations.

Iran’s neighbour Turkey warned: “There is no ambiguity about the gravity of the moment. We stand at a precipice.

“The danger of further escalation is real and immediate,” said ambassador Burak Akcapar, urging countries to prevent a “widening spiral of instability that could extend well beyond Iran and our region”.

Some countries voiced support for Iran at the UN’s top rights body.

China said the US-Israeli attack “brutally violates Iranian people’s human rights” and the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “seriously violates Iran’s sovereignty”.

Cuba said Washington was proclaiming the “exceptional right to conquer and to use force as a legitimate form of behaviour”.

Venezuela – citing the US capture of president Nicolas Maduro – said immunity for heads of state must be respected, otherwise others could be targeted with “unlawful bombing, abduction or assassination”. AFP