Zarif: Humanitarian issues should not be politicized in Syria

Tehran, May 7, IRNA – No side in the Syrian crisis should politicize humanitarian issues and Iran is ready for cooperation with the International Red Cross (ICRC) to decrease the pains of the Syrian people, said the Iranian foreign minister here on Tuesday. Mohammad-Javad Zarif made the comments in a meeting with the visiting President of ICRC Peter Maurer, stressing that Iran is determined to increase its cooperation with the Red Cross. Turning to another issue related to the activities of the ICRC, Zarif said that resolving the issue of finding the bodies of the missed in action (MIA) Iranian martyrs from the time of the Iraqi imposed war against Iran is a dire necessity. Among the other issues discussed in the meeting there were the role and influence of the Islamic teachings on observation of the humanitarian rights. Both sides emphasized that the Islamic teachings positively affect the observation of the rights of the non-military individuals, the captives, and the injured people during armed disputes. Zarif and Maurer were also agreed that the religious officials, the elites, and the lawyers throughout the Islamic world, the Christian world and the other faiths must cooperate with one another more and more effectively than before to deepen the foundations of the humanitarian rights in the world. The ICRC President Peter Maurer has in a bid to expand cooperation among the followers of different religions at the service of strengthening the observation of the human rights thus far met and conferred with the Pope in Vatican, with Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq, and with Ayatollah Makarem-Shriazi in Qom. end