Iran Calls for Practical Moves to End Rohingya Muslims Crisis

In separate phone conversations with his Turkish, Malaysian and Indonesian counterparts Mevlut Cavusoglu, Anifah Aman and Retno Marsudi, Zarif said expressed Iran’s deep concern over the sad situation of Rohingya Muslims, and said that Iran was prepared to help adoption of collective strategies by international organizations and Muslim countries in order to solve the ongoing crisis plaguing Myanmar’s Muslim community.

Myanmar’s military intensified attacks on Rohingya Muslims on August 25, after dozens of police and border outposts in the western state of Rakhine came under attack by an armed group, which is said to be defending the rights of the Rohingya.

The Muslim community had already been under a military siege in Rakhine since October 2016. The government used a militant attack on border guards back then as the pretext to enforce the lockdown. The Rohingya had already been subject to communal violence by extremist Buddhists for years.

Myanmar’s military is accused of committing atrocities and crimes against Rohingya people, who are considered by the UN as the “most persecuted minority group in the world.”

According to a United Nations report published on Monday, a total of 87,000 mostly Rohingya Muslims—including women and children, many with bullet wounds— have arrived in Bangladesh since last month.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Zarif criticized the global community for remaining silent on the persisting violence against the Rohingya Muslims, calling for “crucial” action to end the acts of aggression against the minority group.