Gaza ceasefire must not eclipse justice for genocide and war crimes, Iran tells IPU summit

An Iranian lawmaker says the international community is duty-bound to identify and prosecute the perpetrators and instigators of war crimes and genocide in the Gaza Strip, particularly after the establishment of a temporary ceasefire.

Iran's Deputy Parliament Speaker Hamid Reza Haji Babaei made the remark in an address to the meeting of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC), held on Sunday on the sidelines of the 151st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva, Switzerland.

"Any temporary ceasefire or agreement should not mean the negligence of justice and the criminal responsibility of the criminals,” he said.

The “occupying and genocidal” Israeli regime, directly backed by the United States and certain Western countries, has committed heinous crimes in Gaza, he added.

Israel bombs Gaza's Rafah in latest ceasefire violation

The Israeli military conducts fresh aerial assaults on the Gaza Strip in latest violation of a ceasefire agreement with the Hamas resistance group that ended the regime’s two-year-long genocide against Palestinians.

The Iranian lawmaker emphasized that such atrocities have undermined the foundations of the global multilateralism system and discredited international institutions, whose very purpose is to uphold peace and justice.

Haji Babaei reiterated that the Israeli regime’s repeated acts of aggression against regional countries have incapacitated the United Nations Security Council from playing its primary role in maintaining global peace and security, saying decades of the regime’s impunity have emboldened its repeated atrocities.

"We believe that the course of history can be changed towards a free, secure, and just future for the people of Palestine and the region and establish sustainable and honorable peace only through the unity of the Islamic Ummah, parliamentary solidarity, and the revival of global justice,” he said.

He added that Iran welcomes any efforts and initiatives aimed at putting an immediate end to the war and enabling the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Haji Babaei noted that Iran always supports any move ensuring the cessation of genocide, the withdrawal of occupying forces, the release of Palestinian detainees, and the restoration of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.

The Islamic Republic has utilized all its diplomatic capacities, especially at the regional level, in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations, to exert pressure on the Israeli regime and its supporters to stop the crimes and pull out the occupiers from Gaza.

Following indirect negotiations in Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas agreed on October 9 to a Gaza truce plan proposed by US President Donald Trump. The agreement came into effect on October 10.

Israel accepted the Gaza truce deal after two years, following the failure to achieve its declared objectives of eliminating Hamas and freeing all captives, despite killing 68,159 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 170,203 others.

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