Statement by Representative of the I.R. of Iran before 62th session of the Human Rights Council

Item 2: ID with COI on the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem and in Israel

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Statement 

by 

Mr. Yaser SALARIAN

Representative of the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran

to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva 

before 

62th session of the Human Rights Council

Item 2: ID with COI on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and in Israel

Geneva, June 16, 2026

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بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

Mr. President,

We thank the COI for its important report.

While accountability for all violations is essential, we reject any narrative that equates perpetrators of grave international crimes—including occupation, apartheid, and genocide—with populations subjected to systematic oppression or peoples exercising their right to resist foreign occupation and self-determination under international law.

We further draw the attention of the Commission and the Council to the extension of the same pattern of conduct witnessed in Gaza to southern Lebanon. The systematic destruction of civilian homes, agricultural lands, water infrastructure, and essential services, coupled with measures preventing the return of predominantly Shi’a communities, constitute the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a protected group, in whole or in part, within the meaning of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.

Considered together with large-scale forced displacement, demographic engineering, religious persecution, and official statements by senior officials of the Israeli regime, the specific intent (dolus specialis) to destroy the Shi'a community as a protected group is established, thereby confirming the criminal pattern of the Israeli regime's senior officials under Articles 6, 7(1)(d), and 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute.

While the Commission’s mandate currently focuses on the OPT, the prevention of further ethnic cleansing in Lebanon necessitates either the establishment of a similar mechanism or the extension of the Commission’s mandate, in line with the preventive objectives of paragraph 1 of Human Rights Council resolution S-30/1.

Thank you.

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