Vice president: Iran has six demands from Saudi government
Vice-President for Legal Affairs, Elham Aminzadeh, said on Saturday that Saudi government should permit screening the films and photos of the September 24 Mina catastrophe in line with the International Customary Law.
Aminzadeh told a press conference that the department for legal affairs of the presidential office held several sessions since Friday and today there was meeting with representatives of international humanitarian organizations and international jurors.
She said first of all, the Saudi government should admit responsibility and prove that it had taken all the necessary measures to prevent such a high magnitude tragedy to take place killing foreign nationals.
She noted that the magnitude of the death toll indicated that the Saudi government did not take preventive measures; secondly, negligence of all the standards of relief and rescue operations have been seen afterwards.
Thirdly, payment of damage to the victims, including blood money and other spiritual reparations to the families. Fourthly, punishment of the agents responsible for negligence causing the tragedy. Fifthly, the Saudi government must apologize to the governments and nations who suffered casualties in the tragic event and sixthly, providing guarantees to prevent repetition of such human tragedy in the years ahead.
Aminzadeh said the six charges will be pursued in the Iranian-Saudi courts and international tribunals.
‘In the fact-finding committee, the representatives of different countries should be present and such bodies and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation should be present. The countries having victims should form troikas.’
She said there is yet one more model of formation of fact-finding committee: The model is the one formed in the case of assassination of (former Lebanese Prime Minister) Rafik Hariri in Lebanon, involving the UN. The UN also can form the fact-finding committee.’
Asked whether Saudi Government had not approved international treaties and the international responsibiity the Saudi government is subject to due to attribution of negligence and failure to secure safety of pilgrims, Aminzadeh said Saudi Arabia is signatory to many international treaties and the international treaty about tourism undertaking to secure safety of pilgrims and foreign nationals.
She added that a Hajj pilgrim, heading for the House of God, is an ordinary tourist as well. The rights envisaged by the treaty about tourism and responsibility of the governments about safety of foreign nationals guarantees safety of foreigners by the host government, the Vice-President who is an international law teacher said.
She said that according to the World Health Organization Charter, all countries have the duty to guarantee health of their and foreign nationals and if they refuse to do so, the case will be brought to the international tribunals.
‘We are not empty-handed about legal provisions to sue the Saudi government for failure to honor international responsibility formulated by the International Law Commission in 2001. In addition, we have bilateral security agreements and documents, and the security pact signed by the two governments.’
