Iran Criticizes UN Inaction on Israeli Crimes in Gaza

In a telephone conversation with the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Zarif said it was necessary that a fact-finding committee study different dimensions of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.

In any truce plan the key demand of the people in Gaza, especially the removal of the siege on the Gaza Strip should be considered, said Zarif during his phone conversation with Ban on Sunday evening.

Ban, for his part, said that he has tried to bring about a stable ceasefire to Gaza and put an end to the siege of Gaza as well as help to humanitarian issues in the coastal enclave.

The Iranian foreign minister also had separate telephone conversations with different countries’ officials as well as the EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton during which he discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip.

In his conversation with his Italian counterpart Federica Mogherini, Zarif underlined the need for the international community’s all-out pressures on Israel to halt its attacks on the defenseless Palestinians.

Mogherini, too, highlighted the need for international efforts to supply relief aid and dispatch physicians as well as medical equipment to Gaza through Palestine’s neighboring countries.

Zarif also discussed Israeli violations against Palestinians with the foreign ministers of Algeria, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sudan, Qatar, Turkey, Kuwait, and Egypt.

Iran is using all its diplomatic capacities to urge the international community to break silence on three-week Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip and pressure the Zionist regime to halt its brutal attacks as well as remove the illegal siege of Gaza.

Since July 8 when Israel started launching air strikes on the Gaza Strip, some 1,200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 6,000 have also been injured.

Zionist officials say more than 43 Israelis have been killed but Hamas puts the number of Israeli fatalities at 100.