(IRNA) - Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to take necessary and prompt steps to put an end to the Zionist regime's aggressions.
"As the ongoing aggression threatens the international peace and security, we request that the Security Council carry out its responsibility in accordance with the letter and spirit of the UN Charter and take necessary and prompt steps with a view to putting an end to the aggression. In my view, your personal intervention should , as always, help prevent the situation from slipping out of control," said Mottaki in a letter to the UN Chief Kofi Annan on Thursday, reports Trend.
Mottaki recalled the UN's important role in that connection and said the UN should act with a view to preventing the Zionist regime from continuing to flout the will of the international community, incorporated in numerous UN resolutions.
The full text of the letter is as follows:
"In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful "July 29 ,2006 "Excellency,"I wish to draw your kind attention to the most recent military campaign by the Zionist regime against the innocent Palestinian people which goes on in flagrant defiance of the most basic principles of international law and the fundamental provisions of the United Nations Charter.
"As media reports indicate, the ongoing incursion into northern Gaza targets civilians and purely civilian infrastructures, destructing among other things the three bridges and disabling the only power plant, thus depriving the civilians from basic necessities.
Moreover, the intruding forces are battering northern Gaza towns with artillery and firing missiles into residential areas indiscriminately.
"The illegal detention of dozens of Palestinian cabinet ministers and members of the Palestinian Parliament by the intruding forces are clear signs indicating that the occupying regime is intent on rendering the democratically-elected Palestinian Government inoperative.
"Violating Syria's airspace and threatening to hit targets inside that country is as much perturbing. The crisis, if unchecked, may tip towards escalation, engulfing the whole region.
"With the Palestinian economy already broken down under an embargo since January and the Palestinians remaining under siege even after the occupiers withdrawing from Gaza, the new aggression threatens to inflict further enormous suffering on the civilians and exacerbate the situation within the Palestinian territory and in the region.
"While strongly condemning this latest Zionist criminal act, we consider the aggression that targets the civilian infrastructures as collective punishment and war crimes and crimes against humanity in defiance of international humanitarian law.
"We believe that it is imperative for the international community to get more effectively involved and prevent the Zionists from carrying out their terrorist designs against the Palestinians. The impunity with which they have so far been allowed to carry out their crimes has undoubtedly emboldened them to continue on the same path.
"The UN has an important role to play in this regard and should act with a view to preventing the Zionist regime from continuing to flout the will of the international community, incorporated in numerous UN resolutions. As the ongoing aggression threatens the international peace and security, we request that the Security Council carry out its responsibility in accordance with the letter and spirit of the UN Charter and take necessary and prompt steps with a view to putting an end to the aggression. In my view, your personal intervention should, as always, help prevent the situation from slipping out of control.
"Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.
"Manouchehr Mottaki
"Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran "H. E. Mr. Kofi Annan Secretary-General,
"United Nations, New York."