Iran Denounces US-Israeli War Crimes at UN General Assembly

Addressing a meeting of the UN General Assembly under the agenda item "The Responsibility to Protect and the Prevention of Genocide, War Crimes, Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes against Humanity" held in New York on July 6, a member of Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Yahya Aref, stated that the continued impunity enjoyed by the US and the Israeli regime, alongside double standards in the international system, has undermined efforts to prevent atrocities and deliver justice for victims.

Aref said that since the last consideration of this agenda item in 2025, perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Israeli regime and the United States not only remained unabated but increased in extent, intensity, and gravity in February 2026. During the American-Israeli regime's unprovoked and premeditated war of aggression against Iran from February 2026 onwards, the aggressors killed thousands of civilians including women and children. In one instance, they killed 168 schoolchildren and teachers by targeting a school in the city of Minab, south of Iran. They also attacked Iranian peaceful nuclear facilities, hospitals, medical centers, libraries, and historical monuments.

Despite the severity of such crimes, the international community has not been able to hold the aggressors to account; these crimes were even condoned by some. More reprehensibly, certain countries that portrayed themselves as champions of the fight against egregious crimes actively aided and assisted the aggressors. In this respect, on June 25, 2026, the NATO Secretary General referred to the "number of between 4000 and 5000 US planes taking off" from certain Western countries in support of the so-called "Epic Fury". He added that "this was crucial and important for the US to be able to conduct that whole operation…"

Aref argued that the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against Iran, the open admissions of complicity, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine demonstrate that commitment to effective prevention and suppression of atrocious crimes does not depend on creating additional pseudo-legal terminology or political slogans, but on genuine commitment and good faith in performance of obligations free from hypocrisy, double standards, and selectivity.

He noted that all these challenges are exacerbated by attempts to devise vague nomenclature and fragment relevant international law through notions such as the responsibility to protect. More than twenty years after the 2005 World Summit, Member States have never arrived at a common ground on this notion, and no consistent practice has emerged. Such notions risk diverting attention from combating impunity and have been used to justify violations of fundamental principles of international law, including sovereign equality, non-intervention, and prohibition of threat and use of force. These violations have even amounted to the commission of the same crimes meant to be countered.

In conclusion, Aref emphasized that implementing applicable obligations in good faith in accordance with international law is key to countering atrocious crimes, and this must be upheld against attempts to fragment existing international law. According to Mehr News, the full text of his speech was provided by Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations.