TEHRAN (FNA) - A top military commander blamed the U.S. and the EU for the 1988 chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja and massacre of thousands of people by the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, saying that the attack came as a direct result of the West's silence toward Saddam's crimes.

""The Halabja catastrophe was the result of the international circles' silence on the crimes committed by the West's super-capitalism,"" Chief of Staff of Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said on the occasion of the anniversary of the chemical gassing of the northern Iraqi city of Halabja by Saddam Hussein's army.
He further underlined that the crimes which happened in Halabja dishonored the U.S. and the EU since they prove the Western countries' contradictory positions on human rights issues.