Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed Western concerns for what they call ‘malign regional behavior’, pointing to the West’s full support for the former Iraqi dictator in the massacre of civilians in a chemical attack on Halabja in 1988.

“March 16 is the 33rd anniversary of the chemical carnage in Halabja,” Zarif said in a post on his Twitter account on Monday.

“Some care not to remember—those in the west who provided Saddam with the deadly chemicals,” he added.

“Over 5,000 innocent civilians were gassed to death. Still want to talk about ‘malign regional behavior’? Shameless,” Zarif added, referring to certain Western countries who are accusing Iran of showing “malign regional behavior” despite their own track record.

Some 5,000 people were killed and another 10,000 were injured in the chemical massacre launched by Saddam on his own citizens.

Saddam never tolerated the large minority group and killed many of them during his reign. But the Halabja bombing marked a sharp increase in the number of fatalities of the anti-Kurdish crackdown. It, however, encouraged Kurds to help later efforts to topple Saddam, Press TV reported.

Iran continued to offer its support to the oppressed minority group after the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.