Iran’s UN envoy raps strikes on petchem sites, bridges as war crimes
Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations has lodged a strong protest with the internarional body, denouncing recent US and Israeli attacks on a major bridge in Karaj and petrochemical facilities in southwestern Iran as "war crimes" and "state terrorism."
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the rotating president of the UN Security Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani wrote that the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, including power, water, and energy systems, constitutes clear war crimes and state-sponsored terrorism designed to instill fear and cause severe harm to civilian populations.
"Such horrific and barbaric actions constitute a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and demonstrate the criminal intent of the perpetrators to inflict widespread suffering on civilian populations," IRNA quoted Iravani as stating in the letter.
The attacks on Saturday hit several companies operating in the Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone in Khuzestan Province. According to the zone's public relations office, fires at several petrochemical companies were fully contained and extinguished.
Companies damaged in the assault include Fajr 1 and 2, Karun, Razi, and Imam Khomeini Port. According to the deputy governor of Khuzestan, five people were killed in the attack.
The US and the Zionist regime launched their aggression against the country on Feb. 28, with civilian targets and infrastructure among the primary sites struck.
Last week, part of the B1 bridge in Karaj — the tallest bridge in West Asia — was destroyed in the attack.
Condemning the attacks on civilian infrastructure, Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Farzaneh Sadegh, emphasized that the destruction would not diminish Iranian engineers' expertise and pride.
"Destruction of bridges and infrastructure in various transportation sectors, whether in aviation or roads, may cause damages and reconstruction costs, but this destruction cannot affect the knowledge and pride of Iranian engineers," the minister said Sunday. "We have seen an example of this capability in the Karaj northern bypass highway bridge in Alborz Province, which was designed and built from scratch by proud Iranian engineers."