Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov rejected the US accusations against Iran over “violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention”, saying that Iran is a victim of use of such weapons.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a Twitter message on Monday claimed that the US has declassified information on Iran’s use of chemical weapons.
“Something new for me. So far, as the rest of international community, I believed that Iran was a victim of use of chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein. Why did the US keep this information secret, if it is true?” the Russian official tweeted on Monday.
Pompeo went on to link to a report released by the US State Department last summer on countries’ adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention, also accusing Iran of sending chemical weapons to Libya in the 1980s.
During the eight-year imposed war on Iran, Iraq’s Ba’athist regime executed chemical weapons bombardment against Iran in 1980s with the green light from the US and help of the West, Press TV wrote.
About a million Iranians were exposed to Iraq’s chemical gases. The crime was so great that it moved the world into the Chemical Weapons Convention getting approved in 1993. That didn’t become operational till 1997.
Official reports indicate that in 1980, Iraqis purchased over 1,000 tons of mustard agents from the West. The US and the UK, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands were among countries providing Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist Iraq with the equipment and material to build chemical weapons.