The spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry says the United States and Britain are complicit in a recent “terrible and inhumane” crime perpetrated by the Israeli military in the al-Nuseirat camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip.

Speaking at his weekly press briefing on Monday, Nasser Kan’ani once again censured the Israeli regime’s carnage at the al-Nuseirat camp, which killed 274 Palestinian civilians and wounded 698 others.

“The international community must fulfill its legal responsibility to end the crimes [committed by Israel] and take serious action in order to stop the Zionist regime’s crime machine,” he said.

He added that the Israeli regime has faced a “strategic defeat” since it started its war in Gaza some eight months ago.

Israeli forces carried out dozens of airstrikes in and around the Deir el-Balah and Nuseirat refugee camps on Saturday before they retrieved four Israeli captives.

They launched the raid in broad daylight, claiming to strike at military infrastructure in the camp as part of a “rescue operation” but witnesses and journalists on the ground say Israel bombed residential buildings, leading to higher casualties.

There are more than 100 captives still being held in the besieged Palestinian territory.

In response to a question about some changes in Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet, Kan’ani said, “The replacement of a number of murderers and criminals with other murderers and criminals will not change the nature of this regime’s behavior.”

The Iranian spokesperson once again called on the international community to fulfill its responsibility and put an end to the regime’s war crimes against the people of Palestine.

Tel Aviv unleashed the genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year, killing at least 37,124 Palestinians and injuring 84,712 others.

Most of the causalities have been women and children, and more than 1.7 million Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip — where water, food, medicine, power and fuel are blocked by the Israeli regime — have been internally displaced during this time.

‘High turnout in Iran’s presidential election response to West’

Asked whether the West’s mounting pressure on Iran aims to affect people’s participation in the June 28 presidential election, Kan’ani said Iranians will respond to Western states through their high turnout in the polls.

Iran’s Interior Ministry on Sunday released the final list of six candidates for the 14th presidential election, who were vetted and approved by the Constitutional Council, a 12-member election supervisory body.

It includes current Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, former health minister Massoud Pezeshkian, former justice minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi and current Head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs Amir Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi.

The snap vote will elect a new president to replace Ebrahim Raeisi, who died in a tragic helicopter crash in northwestern Iran on May 19 along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six of their companions.

Iran warns against Israel’s adventurous action in Lebanon

Kan’ani also said, “Iran’s policy is to support regional peace and stability. It is now a global acknowledgment that the Israel regime is the source of insecurity in the region. After eight months of devastating war on Gaza, the world is now convinced that the it is the regime that creates insecurity in the region.”

He asserted that, “The Lebanese army, government, and nation have the right to respond to any Israeli aggressive action, and that the resistance guarantees stability and security in Lebanon. The Zionists should know that the resistance system in the region will not stand idly by in the face of any adventurous action against Lebanon and its sovereignty.”

Europeans to blame for JCPOA talks failure

Kan’ani also pointed to “unconstructive” measures by some European parties against Iran’s nuclear activities and said they are to blame for the failure of talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement — officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The spokesman added that such measures lack an acceptable political logic, urging Europeans to carry out their duties instead of leveling accusations against Iran.

Iran showed the world the peaceful nature of its nuclear program by signing the JCPOA with six world powers. But, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo.

Tehran started to suspend some of its obligations under the agreement in 2019 in full accordance with its inherent rights under paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA.