Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strike was ‘a war crime and a crime against humanity’ – Copyright POOL\/AFP Brendan SMIALOWSKI<\/p>\n
Nina LARSON<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign minister on Friday branded a deadly strike on an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war as a \u201ccalculated\u201d US assault.<\/p>\n
Abbas Araghchi said \u201cmore than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood\u201d in a \u201ccalculated, phased assault\u201d in the February 28 strike on an Iranian elementary school in Minab.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At an urgent debate in the United Nations Human Rights Council focused on the strike, he described it in his video address as \u201ca war crime and a crime against humanity, one that demands unequivocal condemnation by all, and unambiguous accountability for the culprits\u201d.<\/p>\n
UN rights chief Volker Turk meanwhile told the council the bombing evoked \u201cvisceral horror\u201d, insisting on the need for \u201cjustice\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mohaddeseh Falahat, the mother of two children killed in the attack, also spoke to the council by video.<\/p>\n
Calling on the diplomats in Geneva \u201cnot to let this tragedy be forgotten\u201d, she added: \u201cNo mother is prepared to hear the words: \u2018Your child is not coming back\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Deliberate and intentional\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
The attack happened on the day the United States and Israel launched the war with attacks across Iran. In retaliation, Tehran struck targets in Israel and Gulf nations.<\/p>\n
A US Tomahawk cruise missile hit the elementary school due to a targeting mistake, according to the preliminary findings of a US military investigation reported by The New York Times.<\/p>\n
The newspaper said the US military had been bombing an adjacent Iranian base, of which the school building was formerly a part. The target coordinates were set using outdated data, the paper reported.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump intially suggested that Iran itself may have been responsible \u2014 despite Iran not having Tomahawk missiles.<\/p>\n
UN rights chief Turk insisted that \u201cthe onus is on those who carried out the attack to investigate it promptly, impartially, transparently and thoroughly\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenior US officials have said the strike is under investigation,\u201d he said in a video address, calling for Washington to swiftly conclude the probe and make the findings public.<\/p>\n
Araghchi did not wait for the results of the probe to attribute blame.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time when the American-Israeli aggressors, in their own assertions, possess the most advanced technologies, and the highest-precision military and data systems, no one can believe that the attack on the school was anything other than deliberate and intentional,\u201d he told the council.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Atrocity\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
\u201cThis atrocity cannot be justified, cannot be concealed, and must not be met with silence and indifference,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States\u2019 contradictory remarks aimed at justifying their crime could not, in any manner, elude their responsibility.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s discussion, held at the request of Iran, China and Cuba, marked the second urgent debate before the rights council this week focused on the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, a debate requested by Bahrain on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Jordan, ended with the 47-member rights council adopting by consensus a resolution condemning Iran\u2019s \u201cegregious attacks\u201d on its Gulf neighbours, calling for swift \u201creparation\u201d to all victims of its strikes.<\/p>\n
No draft resolution was discussed during Friday\u2019s debate, but countries lined up to condemn the school strike and the Middle East war more broadly.<\/p>\n
Chinese ambassador Jia Guide slammed the United States and Israel for launching their attacks on Iran \u201cwithout authorisation of the Security Council, which is the root cause of this tragedy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cuban ambassador Rodolfo Benitez Verson called for \u201can independent and impartial investigation\u201d into the school strike, which he labelled a \u201cwar crime\u201d.<\/p>\n
The United States and Israel have both disengaged from the council, and did not speak during the debate.<\/p>\n
Turk and several countries also raised the issue of Tehran\u2019s reported growing crackdown on rights at home since the start of the conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Iran are caught between conflict and repression,\u201d the UN rights chief warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWar does not reduce the responsibility of the Iranian authorities to abide by their human rights obligations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strike was ‘a war crime and a crime against humanity’ –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13821,34,37,3040,6762,69,2554,153,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-38681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-hide","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-rights","12":"tag-school","13":"tag-tehran","14":"tag-un","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116301311690051696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}