TEHRAN, Sept. 18 (MNA): Iran has accused the United States of trying to escape responsibility for alleged war crimes after Washington formally withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, said history would not forget the deadly attacks that, according to Iranian authorities, struck the cities of Minab and Lamerd.
In a statement posted on X on Friday, Gharibabadi referred to the reported attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab, where Iranian officials say 168 children were killed, and to a strike on a sports complex in Lamerd that reportedly killed civilians. He described the incidents as apparent war crimes rather than operational mistakes and said the United States could not avoid accountability by leaving the UN rights body.
His remarks came a day after the United States announced that it had formally ended its membership and participation in the UN Human Rights Council. The US State Department accused the council of promoting what it described as “anti American rhetoric” and of taking an appeasement oriented approach toward governments accused of repressing their people.
The allegations against the United States have also drawn attention from a UN backed independent fact finding mission on Iran. On Thursday, the mission said there were “reasonable grounds” to conclude that US forces were responsible for two attacks in Iran, including the strike on the school in Minab and the attack on the sports complex in Lamerd. The mission said the attacks could constitute war crimes.
The investigators said the Minab school was clearly identifiable as a civilian building and that they had found no evidence showing it was being used for military purposes when it was attacked.
The findings have intensified calls for accountability, while the United States’ withdrawal from the Human Rights Council has added a new political dimension to an already deeply painful dispute over civilian deaths and the laws of war.
