OPCW Chief Voices Solidarity with Victims of Sardasht Chemical Attack
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) extended sympathies to and expressed solidarity with the people of Sardasht on the 34th anniversary of a chemical attack by the former Iraqi regime on the Iranian town.
In a message on Monday, June 28, OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias commemorated the 1987 chemical weapon attack on Sardasht in northwest Iran.
The Spanish diplomat also stressed the need for the international community to reaffirm its commitment to the Chemical Weapons Convention and its noble goal to rid the world of chemical weapons.
What follows is the text of his message:
“I deliver these remarks on the 34th anniversary of the 1987 chemical weapons attack on the village of Sardasht in Iran.
The 28th of June is a solemn day of commemoration for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as we pause to remember the victims of that brutal attack.
I have been with the victims in Tehran and in The Hague and I share with them their pain and their feelings.
On behalf of the OPCW, I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to and express my solidarity with the people of Sardasht.
This tragic anniversary is a momentous occasion for the international community to reunify in our shared condemnation of chemical weapons.
Indeed, the universal revulsion of such attacks contributed in a very important way for an outstanding majority of countries in the world to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993.
Today, there are 193 States Parties to the Convention and over 98% of the world’s population lives under its protections.
Nonetheless, in recent years the ban against chemical weapons has come under threat as we have witnessed their use in several countries.
It is vital for the international community to reaffirm its commitment to the Convention and its noble goal to rid the world of chemical weapons.
The victims of Sardasht, and all others who have experienced the torment and pain caused by chemical weapons, deserve all our respect and solidarity.
Thank you.”
Located in Iran's northwestern province of West Azarbaijan, Sardasht was the third city in the world after Japan’s Hiroshima and Nagasaki to become a target of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
On June 28 and 29, 1987, Iraqi bombers attacked 4 crowded parts of Sardasht with chemical bombs and engulfed its residents, women and children, young and old, with fatal chemical gases.
The attacks killed 116 citizens and injured over 5,000.
