Tehran Opposes Al-Bashir Arrest

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Monday said that Iran is opposed to the request of prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for arresting Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir.

Addressing the extraordinary meeting of the executive committee of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Jeddah, Mottaki added, “We support improvement of Sudan’s internal unity and propose to our brothers in Sudan to improve ties with Chad,” Iran Daily reported.

He went on to note, “In the same way that the UN Security Council has underlined establishment of peace and security in Darfur by referring the Darfur crisis to the ICC, we believe that verification of the call for arrest (of Al-Bashir) will entail adverse consequences on the ongoing efforts for disturbing peace in Sudan and it will neither be to the benefit of peace and security nor in line with the notion of justice”.

“In fact, we believe that Al-Bashir’s arrest will harm the stability of Sudan. Resolution of Darfur crisis cannot take place through pursuit of double standards but rather through an active interaction of Islamic states with Sudan for helping advancement of peace talks between the involved parties.”

Mottaki emphasized that arresting Al-Bashir merely intensifies the crisis in Darfur.

“This is an indisputable reality that the African Union and Arab League, which closely monitor the conditions in Darfur, have also admitted,” he pointed out.

The top Iranian diplomat recalled that despite the legal appearance of the ICC prosecutor’s indictment as a move for establishing peace and justice, it is quite unbalanced and it has been arranged in the wake of political biases.

“The silence of the UN Security Council and other related international forums toward many years of genocide and war crimes of Zionists in the occupied territories is also a good case of political favoritism. Not to mention the silence toward the attack on Iraq, which has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Iraqis, including women and children and also the silence toward the killing of many civilians in Afghanistan,” he noted.