Iran condemns normalization of ties with Zionist Regime

Geneva, Sept 30, IRNA - Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh on Wednesday condemned the normalization of relations with the Zionist Regime. He delivered a speech at the 45 Session of The Human Rights Council in Geneva. The full text of Baghaei Hamaneh's speech is as follows: Madam Vice President, Our condolences to the State of Kuwait for the passing of the late Emir Madam Vice President, The question of Palestine remains the most protracted human rights and humanitarian situation ever since the UN establishment 75 years ago. The situation has deteriorated over time as the occupying power has metamorphosed from a militant usurper mastering terrorist tactics into a heavily militarized apartheid regime that defines its existential philosophy by race. That is why Archbishop Desmund Tutu declared in 2014 that the treatment of Palestinians reminded him of apartheid, only worse. The occupying regime's systemic repression of Palestinians has become more brutal as bombing and blockade of Gaza continues, and ethnic cleansing, land seizure, and home demolition have long become normal in Palestinian territories. The only things that do not matter for the Israeli oppressors are international law as it also continues its occupation of the Syrian Golan and Lebanese territories. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty?" Bertrand Russel once asked. Madam Vice President, This cruelty will only end when the occupation ends and the Palestinians’ right to self-determination is restored but in the meantime, the community of States has moral and legal responsibility to hold the Israeli regime accountable for the ‘most serious crimes of concern to the international community’ committed routinely against Palestinians. The sense of absolute impunity stoked by the regime’s patrons, manifested also by their boycott of Item 7, is the true source of the ever-recurring pattern of atrocities and lawless behavior. They are equally responsible for those crimes and must be held accountable. The so-called normalization of relations with the occupier will only re-enforce this sense of impunity at the cost of Palestinians. Let me conclude by quoting from a Palestinian poet: “Occupation means that every day you die, and the world watches in silence as if your death was nothing as if you were a stone falling in the earth, water falling over water. And if you face all of this death and indifference and keep your humanity, and your love and your dignity and YOU refuse to surrender to their terror, then you know something of the courage that is Palestine.’’ (Palestinian poet Suheir Hammad). I thank you.