Iran urges ICJ to seek compensation from suppliers of chemical arms

Iran has sought the Hague-based International Court of Justice to seek compensation from suppliers of chamical weapons for Iranian victims and their families.

German firms supplied chemical weapons to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to spray Iranian soldiers in its US-backed invasion of Iran in 1980s.

Iran has already taken legal action with ICJ and several victims of the chemical weapons have attened Conferences in the Hague to lodge complaints against the German firms which supplied chemicals to Saddam Hussein in 1980s. Several of the victims have died after they lodged complaints with the ICJ.

Secretary of an Iranian body in charge of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Gholam-Hossein Dehqani told IRNA that the body is to collect images, interviews and footages for presenting to the world body from Iranian victims of chemical weapons.

The CWC is an arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. Its full name is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.

As of May 2009, some 188 states, including Iran, are party to the agreement.

“Those countries that had helped Saddam Hussein regime duing eight years war imposed on Iran (1980-1988), have made no proper cooperation with Iran to pay compensation for the victims of chemical weapons,” Dehqani said.

He said that there was no international organization to follow up the rights of Iranian victims, the official said.

Moreover, Dehqani referred to a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice in the Hague which has officially announced the deposed president of Iraq as the beginner of war against Iran and the user of chemical weapons.

“We will use it as a reliable and important document for pursuing the rights of Iran’s chemical weapons victims,” Dehqani added.


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