UN Human Rights Chief Urges Peace, Warns of Broader Crisis in Mideast

(MENAFN) The UN’s top human rights official on Wednesday cautioned that the intensifying conflict involving Iran risks expanding into a wider regional crisis, asserting that "we cannot go back to war as a tool of international relations."

In a video address to an urgent Human Rights Council session on Iran, Volker Turk described the situation as "extremely dangerous and unpredictable," with civilians across the region bearing the heaviest impact.

Highlighting strikes by the US and Israel on Iran, as well as Iran’s attacks on Gulf States and Jordan, he emphasized that many actions in the ongoing conflict raise "serious concerns under international law, which prohibits attacks targeting civilians and their infrastructure and attacks on military targets where harm to civilians is disproportionate."

Turk also pointed to broader regional implications, warning that the conflict carries "grave ramifications" for neighboring countries, including Iraq and Syria, as well as the occupied Palestinian territory.

He noted that recent missile strikes near nuclear facilities in both Israel and Iran underscore "the immense danger of further escalation," cautioning that states are "flirting with unmitigated catastrophe."

The human rights chief also flagged disruptions to global supply chains, including shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which heighten the risk of worldwide food and energy crises.

Stressing the legal dimension of the attacks on civilian infrastructure, Turk said they raise "serious concerns under international law," noting that deliberate assaults on civilians could amount to war crimes.

"This conflict has an unprecedented power to ensnare countries across borders and around the world," he added, concluding that "The only guaranteed way to prevent this is to end the conflict."

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