Zarif: US itself equipped Iraq with WMD for attack against Iran
New York, Feb 9, IRNA -- Iran's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that the US itself has equipped Iraq with weapons of mass destruction for use against Iran.
He said that Iran had been aware of US support for Iraq to impose war on Iran adding that the then-CIA chief visited Baghdad in 1984 and encouraged the Iraqi regime to bomb Iranian cities.
Iran had, at the time, delivered a document to the effect to United Nations, he said.
Zarif said that the international fora do not heed the US assertion that it wants to wage war on Iraq to disarm it from weapons of mass destruction while it overlooks Israeli stockpiles of nuclear arms.
On Iranian soldiers still being held in Iraq, he said that he believes there are still between 500 to 2,000 Iranian soldiers being held prisoners in Iraq.
He said that Iraq had lied about Iranian soldiers being held prisoners in Iraq adding that once it announced there are no PoWs in Iraq, but, later released some of them.
Asked about the victims of Iraqi chemical warfare, Zarif said that about 100,000 Iranian soldiers have fallen victim to chemical warfare adding that they have lodged complaints with Iranian courts against the US administration and claimed about dlrs 200 billion to dlrs 500 billion in damages.
The dlrs 200-500 billion compensation suit is the lowest possible owing to the large number of the victims.
Responding to a question about Iran-US relations, he said that the Iranians do not like the US to deal with Iran from the position of power and will never allow the US to humiliate them.
"If the US decides to deal with Iran on the basis of mutual respect, the two countries can negotiate on common grounds," Zarif said.
On the reform movement ushered in by President Mohammad Khatami in 1997, Zarif said that the reform movement is going ahead in parallel with the the goals of the Islamic Revolution.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
