UN incapacity to blame for continuation of Israel crimes: Iran

Iran considers the persistence of the Israeli regime’s criminal activities a result of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)’s failure to honor its obligations regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

The Islamic Republic’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Gholam-Hossein Dehqani made the remark on Tuesday, addressing an open UNSC meeting titled “Palestine and the Middle East” on behalf of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), whose rotating presidency is currently being held by Tehran.

He enumerated some of the crimes being committed by the Israeli regime in the territories under its occupation, namely attacks against civilians, the illegal confiscation of Palestinian lands, the destruction of Palestinians’ homes, the continued policy of illegal settlement construction, the inhumane siege of the Gaza Strip, and Tel Aviv’s violation of the Islamic identity of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

“The Security Council has shown that it is incapable of resolving this crisis, and the al-Quds-occupying regime continues its colonial and inhumane policies unafraid of any punishment; policies and crimes that have continued over six decades in violation of all international principles and laws, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the Iranian official said.

The Convention prohibits an occupying entity from destroying private property or forcibly transferring population.

Dehqani reasserted NAM’s support for the people of Palestine in the face of the Israeli occupation.

The movement “asserts that this situation is not sustainable, and that an end should be put to the regime’s occupation and the failure to punish it, which have caused immeasurable pain for the people of Palestine and given birth to many crises and instabilities in the Middle East region,” he said.

Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The occupied territories have been witnessing escalating tensions due to Tel Aviv’s imposition in August last year of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Palestinians say the regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.

Over 160 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2015 amid the tensions.28 Israelis have also been killed during the period.

The Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory, has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.