Araghchi at OIC Meeting: Israeli regime’s war crimes and genocide in Palestine must be prosecuted in court

On Monday, August 25, 2025, Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi delivered remarks at the extraordinary session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers. The full text of his speech is as follows:

In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Peace and blessings be upon you.

Excellencies,

We meet today at a moment when Gaza stands before our collective conscience like a shattering mirror. What is unfolding before our eyes is the systematic destruction of a besieged people by a ruthless apartheid regime that operates with total impunity.

The people of Gaza are being massacred in a premeditated manner; residential neighborhoods have been obliterated; hospitals have turned into graveyards; and children, in blatant violation of every human standard, are trapped in famine and starvation. This is not a normal war; it is collective punishment—a policy of domination and an onslaught that bears every hallmark of genocide.

The perpetrators of these crimes now openly speak of their plans to impose full and permanent military control over Gaza. They talk of new encirclements, new buffer zones, new expulsions—calling it “security.” But we know its real name: ethnic cleansing, a systematic effort to fracture a nation until nothing remains but its annihilation or exile.

International law is crystal clear: starvation and indiscriminate bombing are classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits targeting civilians, destroying homes, and forced displacement. This deliberate imposition of conditions designed to destroy a people has only one name: genocide. What more evidence do we need?

History will ask us: when Gaza was suffocating, did the Islamic world speak with one voice? Did we act—or did we wait for others to act and decide for us? Today, hollow condemnations without action are meaningless.

Excellencies,

To establish peace and ensure the complete withdrawal of occupying forces from every inch of Gaza, we must resolve to:

• Mobilize all political, economic, and legal instruments, including sanctions, boycotts, and coordinated international pressure;
• Pursue accountability at every level, in every court, against all those who have committed or enabled war crimes and genocide in Palestine; and
• Cut off all relations with the murderers of our brothers and sisters in Gaza, who today dream their absurd dream of a “Greater Israel.” History has proven that appeasement has never worked—and never will.

We must also confront the complicity of governments that arm the occupying regime, shield it from international condemnation, and veto justice. They are far from neutrality—and neutrality in the face of atrocity is not neutrality, but complicity.

Distinguished colleagues,

Gaza is more than a place of suffering. Gaza is a witness, a symbol of resistance, a reminder that human dignity cannot be reduced to ashes by bombs. The people of Gaza are waiting for meaningful support. Their steadfastness calls on us to stand with them—not only in words, but in decisive action.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught us that the Islamic ummah is like one body. Today this body is wounded and bleeding in Gaza. To remain silent is to wound ourselves; to act courageously is the path to healing.

I sincerely hope this meeting will be remembered in history as more than speeches and promises. Let it be the day the Islamic world moved from passive witness to decisive will, from silence to strong leadership—the day we chose justice over fear, unity over hesitation, and humanity over politics.

And let us remember: Gaza’s tragedy is not only for Muslims. It is a test of global conscience. That is why we call upon all nations, regardless of faith or geography, to stand on the side of humanity, justice, and dignity—the side of history that is right.

History will not forgive delay. Gaza cannot wait. The time for action is now.