Iran has set up a court to try Israelis for its air attacks on Gaza and is ready to try in absentia any people who Tehran says have committed "crimes", a judiciary official said on Tuesday. Iran, which does not recognise Israel, has criticised some Arab states for not doing enough to stop military action by the Jewish state.
Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on all Muslims to defend Palestinians in whatever way they can. "The court is in a special branch in Tehran and entrusted with the task of dealing with the executors, planners and officials of this (Israeli) regime who have committed crimes," judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi said.
He said the court was set up on the basis of a 1948 UN convention on the prevention of genocide to which Iran is a signatory. Iranian Foreign Minister on Tuesday accused Israel of committing "genocide against humanity" in Gaza. He was speaking in a meeting with foreign envoys in Tehran that was broadcast and translated by Iran's English-language Press TV.
Jamshidi called on all Palestinians who have been affected by the Israeli operation in Gaza to file complaints. The Israeli officials could be tried in absentia, he added. Israel, which accuses Iran of supplying Hamas Islamists with weapons, said the strikes which began on Saturday were in response to almost daily rocket and mortar fire from the Hamas -ruled Gaza Strip.
Jamshidi said Iran's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, was sending letters to his counterparts in all Islamic states seeking their co-operation with this court.
Earlier on Tuesday, two petrol bombs were thrown into the compound of the Jordanian embassy in Tehran, which a Jordanian official said was probably a reaction to events in Gaza. The official said there were no injuries and little damage. A similar attack against the Egyptian mission, which borders Gaza, took place earlier this month when a petrol bomb was thrown at the mission's fence. That protest was against Israel's blockade of Gaza.
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