Iran to mount resistance in face of US pressures as it repelled Iraq's 1980s war: Zarif

“On June 28, we commemorate the horrific chemical attack on our civilians in Sardasht, Iran,” Zarif wrote in a post published on his official Twitter page on Saturday.

“We’ll never forget that Western world supported & armed Saddam--even with chemical weapons,” he added, criticizing the UN Security Council for falling short of condemning the attack while pledging resistance against pressures on the country.  

“Security Council never condemned his gassing of our people. We persevered then, and will now,” he said.

“We'll never forget that Western world supported & armed Saddam--even with chemical weapons. Security Council never condemned his gassing of our people. We persevered then, and will now,” the top Iranian diplomat pointed out.

During the Iraq-Iran war, Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein waged several chemical attacks on Iran’s cities, leaving behind many victims who are still suffering after decades.

In June 1987, the Iraqi Air Force targeted four most populated areas of Sardasht in West Azarbaijan province of Iran with chemical bombs. The attack on the city immediately killed about 130 people and injured thousands of others.

A very large proportion of those who survived from the Sardasht gas attack developed serious long-term complications over the next few years, including serious respiratory problems, eye lesions, skin problems as well as problems in their immune system.
Many of those who fell victim to the attacks also lost their lives over the past three decades. 

Several Western countries, including Germany, the UK, the US, provided the Iraqi dictator with the equipment and material to build chemical weapons.

The remarks come amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US, which Washington stoked after its unilateral exit from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reinstatement of sanctions as part of its policy of “maximum” pressure against the Islamic Republic.

Tensions further spiked between Iran and the US after Washington’s decision to strengthen its military build-up in the region.
Such deployments began in May when the US sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the region along with Patriot missile batteries, among other reinforcements, citing alleged Iranian threats.

Shortly before the announcement for deployment of additional troops in the Persian Gulf, the Pentagon released a blurry video that it claimed showed Iranian boats removing a mine from one of two tankers attacked in the Gulf of Oman on June 13.

The US has blamed Iran for the attacks, which hit one Japanese-owned and one Norwegian-owned tanker. The tankers were carrying Japanese-related crude near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has vigorously denied the allegation, calling the attacks “suspicious.”

The tensions further soared after the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) shot down an intruding American spy drone in Iran’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan on June 20.

The US claims the drone was flying over international waters but the IRGC says the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region — which sits in the central district of Jask County — after the aircraft violated the Iranian airspace.