GENEVA: An independent United Nations probe investigating rights violations in Iran condemned on Wednesday attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran as well as Tehran's retaliatory strikes across the region, saying they violated the UN Charter.
The United Nations Charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
"These attacks, which were followed by Iran's retaliatory strikes across the region, run counter to the UN Charter," the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said in a statement.
It also expressed deep shock over a strike that hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab in southern Iran on Saturday, the first day of the US and Israeli attacks. Most of the victims appear to have been schoolgirls aged seven to 12, it said.
Earlier on Wednesday, a separate UN panel of experts said more than 160 children were killed, citing reports.
The UN fact-finding probe said the Iranian population was now caught between a large-scale military campaign that may go on for weeks and a government in Tehran which has a long record of human rights abuses.
The statement said the killing of dozens of Iranian officials - who have included Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - in the US-Israeli air strikes was not an acceptable means to deliver justice under international law.
The probe said it was 'appalled' that dozens of Iranian officials have been killed in targeted US-Israeli air strikes.
The rules of international law "cannot be varied according to the state taking action", the investigators said. - Agencies
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