Tehran wants Saddam tried for chemical war against Iran

[mudwoman]

TEHRAN - "During the war, Saddam used chemical weapons against Iran 200 times, which left 100,000 people chemically disabled,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said here on Wednesday.

Iranian citizens disabled due to chemical weapons attacks are the living proof and witnesses of Saddam Hussein’s crimes against humanity, Mottaki told reporters at a press conference after visiting Iranians injured by chemical weapons in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war in a hospital in northern Tehran.

“The Islamic Republic was the main victim of chemical weapons. It is evident that Saddam carried out all the atrocities against Iran with the help of Western companies and countries,” he added.

He promised that the Foreign Ministry would struggle to restore the rights of the war disabled, adding that Iran has prepared a formal complaint, which the Foreign Ministry will present to the special tribunal trying Saddam in Iraq.

"The court has yet to review Saddam's crimes abroad. We want his crimes against Iranians to be investigated," Reuters quoted him as saying.

The formal complaint includes documents that prove Iraq's use of nerve and mustard gas during the eight-year war, Mottaki said.

The foreign minister added that Saddam had used chemical weapons to kill Iranians during the war, especially in Kurdish regions in northwestern Iran, flattening entire villages and destroying farms.

Several dozen war veterans injured by chemical weapons are undergoing treatment in central Tehran's Sassan Hospital, one of two hospitals in the capital specializing in such wounds. "Western countries and companies that supplied Saddam with chemicals share the responsibility for this crime," Mottaki said.

"Saddam acquired chemicals from more than 400 Western companies, including 25 American, 15 German, 10 British, 3 Dutch, 3 Swiss, and 2 French companies."

Iran is deeply concerned about the influence of its archenemy, the United States, on the trial of Saddam, he added.

"We are concerned about the way the court is trying these war criminals, and America's pressure on the court (to ignore Iran's demand).

"Iran is closely observing the trial," he said.

He also asked the media to help convey to the world the message that the Iranians disabled due to chemical weapons attacks have been oppressed.

Iran seeks purposeful and timely nuclear negotiations

On the nuclear issue, Mottaki said that there must be no preconditions in Iran’s nuclear talks with the European Union, adding that Iran's stance is clearly defined, the Iranian Students News Agency reported.

The nuclear talks are quite serious and should follow a set timetable, Mottaki added.

“The topics of the talks are clear, and the talks will proceed if our European friends are determined,” he noted.

"We do not want talks just for the sake of talks.

"Iran's position that its nuclear activities will not be diverted to the manufacture of weapons and that the Europeans should reaffirm Iran's right to access to nuclear technology meant for peaceful purposes are the two main points in the talks," he stressed.

The activities at the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility cannot be classified as uranium enrichment, and activities there will continue, he declared in response to a question on whether activities at the Isfahan UCF would continue, given that nuclear talks are underway in Vienna.

He underlined the necessity of conducting enrichment and complete nuclear fuel cycle activities on Iranian territory, saying, "The technology that is to be used has become an indigenous science."

Commenting on the recent European Union resolution accusing Tehran of systematically violating human rights at home, Mottaki said that the West constantly issues anti-Iranian resolutions and statements, which Iran rejects as baseless, while the Westerners themselves are the main violators of human rights in the world.

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