Iranian Official Says U.S. Cannot Evade Responsibility Over Reported War Crime
Kazem Gharibabadi cites a U.N. fact-finding report on the Minab school attack while asserting that incidents in Minab and Lamerd were not operational errors.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the United States cannot evade responsibility for alleged war crimes in Minab and Lamerd. His comments followed a U.N. fact-finding report that, according to IRNA, found reasonable grounds to believe U.S. forces were responsible for an attack on a Minab elementary school and classified it as a war crime. The supplied accounts cite conflicting casualty figures and do not include a U.S. response.
TEHRAN — Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said the United States could not avoid responsibility for what he described as war crimes in Minab and Lamerd.
In a post on the social media platform X on Friday, 27 Shahrivar, Gharibabadi said that the events in the two locations would be remembered as clear war crimes rather than operational mistakes. He wrote that a school in Minab had been “colored with the blood of 168 children” and that a sports field in Lamerd had been turned into a killing ground for civilians.
“Everyone now confirms that what happened in Minab and Lamerd was an obvious war crime, not an operational error,” Gharibabadi wrote, according to Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA. He added that the United States could not escape responsibility by withdrawing from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Gharibabadi’s remarks followed a report issued by experts from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission of the United Nations, according to IRNA. The experts said they had reasonable grounds to believe that U.S. forces were responsible for an attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab.
The report, as summarized by IRNA, said the attack killed 150 people, including 120 students. The committee concluded that the incident amounted to an indiscriminate attack that killed civilians and damaged civilian infrastructure. It said that, under international law, the attack constituted a war crime.
The accounts cited in the report and in Gharibabadi’s statement contain different casualty figures for the Minab school. Gharibabadi referred to 168 children, while IRNA’s summary of the U.N. fact-finding report cited 150 people killed, including 120 students. The supplied account does not explain the discrepancy.
The available report also provides no further details about the incident in Lamerd beyond Gharibabadi’s characterization of it as an attack that killed civilians. His statement represents the position of an Iranian government official, while the findings about the Minab school are attributed to experts from the U.N. independent fact-finding mission. The supplied information does not include a response from the United States or additional details about any U.S. decision concerning the Human Rights Council.