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Slamming US sanctions

Unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States on a number of countries, including Iran, have hampered their access to critically-needed drugs and medical equipment, especially during the COVID pandemic. Now, Iran’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations says these measures violate human rights and continue to inflict immeasurable harm on people's health. Ershadi was speaking at a UN General Assembly meeting. She said the detrimental and severe negative effects of these horrific measures on women, children and the elderly are self-evident. Ershadi especially highlighted the impact of US sanctions on children suffering from epidermolysis bullosa, which is a chronic skin disease. She said as a result of sanctions imposed by the US in 2018, exports of all items needed to treat such patients to Iran have stopped. The Iranian diplomat noted that this situation has led to great suffering and even deaths among children affected by this disease. Ershadi said unilateral coercive measures have also curbed Iran's access to life-saving medicines and medical devices needed to treat other rare and severe diseases.

Israeli atrocities

There is no end in sight to Israel’s brutalities across the occupied Palestinian territories. The regime’s forces and settlers have killed two more Palestinian men in the West Bank, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed on Thursday to four. Nineteen-year-old Labib Muhammad Labib Dhamidi was killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank town of Huwwara. Israeli settlers shot him in the heart a few hours after another Palestinian youth was fatally shot by the regime’s forces there. Earlier on Thursday, Israeli forces had killed two Palestinians near the West Bank town of Tulkarm. 23-year-old Abdul-Rahman Atta and 27-year-old Hudhaifa Fares were shot by live fire during a raid on Shufa village. Israel has intensified its attacks against Palestinians in recent months and has killed nearly 250 people, including children, in the occupied territories so far this year.

Europe supporting repression

Despite their claim to be champions of democracy, Western states have been selling powerful spyware to authoritarian regimes to silent dissidents. This, according to a probe conducted by a group of investigative media. The probe, carried out by 15 investigative media outlets, put a special focus on the Intellexa Alliance, a group of companies run by former Israeli intelligence officials. The results revealed that for more than a decade, European companies have provided dictators with cyber-surveillance tools to spy on activists, journalists and academics. They showed that Intellexa Alliance's products have been sold to at least 25 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa to undermine human rights and press freedom. Criminal charges against one of the companies involved in the case were downgraded in 2022, making their trial unlikely. The new revelations follow a 2021 scandal around the Israeli spyware Pegasus, which was reportedly used to spy on more than 50,000 individuals across the globe.

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