Iran deplores as ‘diplomatic catastrophe of century’ UNSC inaction on Gaza massacre

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks at a meeting of his counterparts from various countries, which was being held on the sidelines of the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Monday.

"What we are witnessing today in [terms of] the UN Security Council's inaction concerning the genocide in Gaza amounts to the diplomatic catastrophe of the century," he said.

Beyond doubt, this period of time would pass, despite all the travails and sufferings that it has afflicted on the oppressed and resilient people of Palestine, the top diplomat said. However, the attitude that is adopted concerning this genocide by each country or international organization "will go down in history," he asserted.

The Israeli regime launched the war on October 7, 2023 following al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise operation staged by Gaza's resistance movements against the occupied territories.

As part of its consistent political patronage for the Israeli regime, the United States, which is Tel Aviv's main benefactor, has so far vetoed three UNSC resolutions that have called for implementation of an immediate ceasefire in the Israeli onslaught.

So far, nearly 30,000 people have died in the Israeli aggression that also enjoys unreserved military and intelligence support on the part of Washington.

Amir-Abdollahian reminded that women and children comprised around 70 percent of the deaths, saying the child fatalities "amount to the most horrific rate of infanticide throughout the human history."

Amir-Abdollahian noted that, apart from those who were being killed directly during the onslaught, a whopping number of Palestinians were also suffering "slow death" as a result of a simultaneous siege that the regime was employing against the coastal sliver.

The regime's "direct and intentional" attacks on healthcare facilities had, meanwhile, come to deprive the Palestinians of the medical equipment and drugs that were needed by tens of thousands of injured Gazans, he said.

"The wounded and even children are being operated on, without anesthetics," the foreign minister noted. He also reminded that "as a result of unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases have come to threaten the lives of more human beings every day."

Amir-Abdollahian, meanwhile, warned about the expected dire consequences of a potential ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which has come to host more than half of the territory's 2.4-million-strong population, who have fled there from the ravages of the war.

He considered arming the regime amid the aggression to be an "unforgiveable wrong," advising the members of the international community to sever all their economic and commercial ties with the apartheid regime.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Amir-Abdollahian underlined that the military onslaught could not continue until so-called "total elimination" of the Gaza-based resistance movement of Hamas, which the Israeli regime has vowed to oust from the territory's rule.

"That time will never come," he said, adding, "Hamas and the resistance serve as a liberating movement and manifestation of the Palestinian nation's cause of liberation from occupation and establishment of a thoroughly Palestinian State."

"The Zionists are after eliminating the Palestinian nation. [However] no nation has, throughout the humanity's history, relinquished its land, something that will not happen in the case of Palestine either."

The foreign minister finally asserted that Palestine's future could only be resolved through intra-Palestinian dialogue, asserting that alternative and imposed solutions were all "doomed to fail."