Alwaght- An Iranian court has ruled that the US should pay some 245 million dollars in damage to the victims of chemical attacks carried out by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein'd troops during the 1980 to 1988 imposed war on Iran.
Iran's Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Eje'i said Sunday the amount would be distributed among 18 victims of the attacks who had filed for the legal action.
"A number of people who have been harmed during the chemical bombing have filed lawsuits and a court has issued decrees for 18 of them who have been harmed or died and estimated their ransom," Mohseni Eje'i was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians were killed in the Iraqi-imposed war and many more were affected by the chemical weapons like mustard gas that were used by the regime of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Many of those Iranians who were attacked by chemical weapons and are alive today continue to suffer the lingering aftereffects.
Dead bodies are seen after Iraq's gas attack on the Iranian city of Sardasht in 1987 during the rule of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Iraq once possessed a huge arsenal of chemical weapons, the production of which was facilitated by exports of chemicals as well as financial and technological support from the United States and other Western countries.
Iraq is believed to acquire the technology and the materials to develop chemical weapons from the US and a number of Western countries. According to reports, US spy agency, CIA, had knew about Iraq’s use of chemical weapons as early as 1983, but the US took no action against the violations of international law, and even failed to alert the UN.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a message on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of former Iraqi dictator Saddam's chemical attack against the Northwestern city of Sardasht in July, lashed out at the US for its double-standard approach towards chemical weapons use.
"Those who are today claiming that chemical weapon has been used in Syria, in a suspicious and dangerous scenario, are those who not only ignored using the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and banned chemical weapons against the Iranian soldiers and civilians during the imposed war against this innocent but proud nation (Iranian) but also were accomplices in Saddam's crime by arming and all-out support for the criminal regime of Saddam," Zarif said.
He also stressed that Iran condemns use or threat to use the WMDs, including chemical weapons, as well as use of chemical attack allegations as a pretext to pave the ground for illegal action against independent nations and government.
His remarks alluded to the rumors of the US attacks against Syria after spokesperson for the United States administration accused Syria of preparing to stage a chemical attack in the Arab country, threatening that Washington would make Damascus pay “a heavy price.”
"Iran is against using such weapons in any place, any time and by anyone," Zarif underscored.
