Iran UN envoy urges global action to end Gaza genocide
Iran’s UN envoy on Tuesday called on the international community to decisively and immediately act against Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Addressing the UN General Assembly’s meeting marking the 10th anniversary of the International Day in Commemoration of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide, Amir Saeid Iravani said genocide could not be erased through silence, underscoring that confronting genocide was not optional, but a legal and moral duty.
“Preventing genocide is not just a shared aspiration; it is a binding obligation under international law, and a solemn duty owed to humanity. It is indeed our collective responsibility to prevent and punish genocide wherever and whenever it threatens”, Iravani said.
Referring to reports by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory that present deeply alarming conclusions regarding acts amounting to genocide by Israel in the Gaza Strip, he said Israel had repeatedly and openly defied international law, violating international humanitarian law and international human rights law in ways extensively documented by UN mechanisms.
“The International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion has already described genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Israeli military operations have resulted in unprecedented killing and serious harm, the imposition of total siege and starvation, systematic destruction of healthcare and education systems as well as acts of sexual violence and widespread torture, direct targeting of women and children, widespread attacks on cultural and religious sites, and the obstruction of life-saving humanitarian aid. These acts cannot be justified, minimized, or obscured.”
The envoy urged the United Nations to lead efforts to end Israel’s atrocities and uphold the dignity of victims of genocide.
He also pointed to the role of certain Western media platforms in justifying genocide.
“We must confront the role of certain Western media platforms whose distortion and dehumanizing rhetoric have facilitated the justification of these genocidal acts. As the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Albanese, has highlighted in her report, many Western states have facilitated, legitimized and eventually normalized this genocidal campaign, reproducing colonial narratives and Israeli distortions of international law, all while hiding behind diplomacy.”
Israel launched an all-out aggression on Gaza in October 2023 after a Hamas operation in the occupied territories that had come as a response to decades of Israeli occupation and aggression.
The war has so far claimed the lives of around 70,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The victims include hundreds who have been killed during daily Israeli violations since early October when Tel Aviv supposedly agreed to a cease-fire deal with Gaza’s Hamas resistance movement.