Iran has strongly denounced recent comments by an American senator who encouraged Israel to assassinate more Iranian scientists, saying the remarks amount to incitement to terrorism, which is a flagrant violation of international law.
During a visit to Israel in mid-February, US Senator Lindsey Graham claimed that the Jewish people can’t live with a nuclear Iran and that he had “no doubt that Israel will do what she has to” against Iran’s nuclear program.
“A lot of Iranian scientists have had a lot of accidents, and we would expect more accidents to come,” he said, referring to the assassinations of a number of Iranian scientists in terrorist attacks widely attributed to the Israeli regime.
Graham made the remarks in the midst of talks in Vienna to revive the US-abandoned Iran deal, or the JCPOA, which hawkish US lawmakers, including Graham, and the regime in Tel Aviv bitterly oppose.
In a letter submitted to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Iran’s permanent mission to the UN said the remarks were “disgusting” and “hateful” and acted as a “green light” to the Israeli regime to continue its terrorist attacks against Iranian scientists.
The comments constitute a flagrant violation of the United States’ international obligations, especially those under UN resolutions that prohibit states from inciting terrorist attacks and urge them to refrain from supporting terrorist activities, the letter read.
It also pointed to the long history of Israeli acts of sabotage against Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities, urging the international community, the UN Security Council in particular, to strongly condemn the provocative acts and the encouragement of such terrorist activities.
The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves the right to take all necessary measures in accordance with international law, the Iranian mission added.