Unaddressed Concerns: Accountability for Peace
By Zeeba T. Hashmi
Islamabad Talks following a two week ceasefire agreement brokered by Pakistan comes at a point when it became dire to prevent an impending apocalypse as President Trump had earlier threatened Iran with annihilation of its entire civilization in his explicit warning to Iran. The second round of talks are in the process of materializing. This moment comes at a cost of many human lives lost to the maddening war, with Iran bearing a painful burden of losing innocent human lives in the US-Israel missile strikes. Of 2,076 lives lost so far, 212 were children, including the little souls who were killed in a direct hit on their school that was session in Minab, this was further authenticated by the Independent fact finding report published 4th March, 2026. It must be noted that the airstrike on a school or hospital places the US and Israel under one of the six-grave violations against children in times of war. These grave violations are identified and condemned by the Security Council which has devised its framework reporting mechanism to monitor report and respond to such violations. In the recent war, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have also resulted in deaths of 130 children, out of 1,497 innocent lives lost there. The Israeli aggression continues. The Iranian retaliation to Israel and the US bases in the Gulf Countries, including their important economic, commercial and energy and water desalination centers resulted in 28 civilian deaths across the Gulf under its target, whereas 26 casualties were reported in Israel.
In fairness to the victims belonging to any side, one cannot also absolve the Iranian regime that adopted brutal measures against own political dissenters who protested against the regime and were met with public executions, although with a mix of sources reporting, including Iranian state media, there is an estimate of at least a 1,000 civilians executed by authorities in a single year in 2025, the highest number in its track record in last 15 years. By January 2026, there were 6,000 deaths reported in the regime’s attempt to crush the failed people’s uprising that turned violent.
But the terms of peace being discussed is not about the human casualties or the irreparable losses. If there were any terms on reparations placed on part of Iran, they held little value against the demand for Iran to denuclearize and degrade its Uranium enrichment, not about accountability, not about reiterating safeguards, and apart from placing political positioning by sharing heartbreaking pictures of martyred children on social media by the delegates, human rights were nowhere mentioned here. As the terms of peace are being discussed, an MOU hopefully signed, the bigger question will remain of the unaddressed war crimes.
The conflict is indeed becoming a pattern with US and Israel strikes against Iran. In 2024 Israel, made confident by unstopped genocidal actions in Gaza, strikes against Lebanon targeting Hezbullah, further exerted aggression to directly target Iran’s defensive missile system, which is significant because this direct strike is considered as a first in decades. In June 2025, Israel again struck Iran to target its supposed nuclear sites, but with its own defence system not holding up, persuaded for US military intervention, which it responded by striking on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Trump claimed to have completely “obliterated” nuclear capacities, but there were serious doubts as to the extent of damage caused, regardless of how It was highly risky.
To the US attacking these facilities, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. the Director General of IAEA, expressed deep concerns over the actions.
“This development is deeply concerning. I have repeatedly stated that nuclear facilities must never be attacked, regardless of the context or circumstances, as it could harm both people and the environment. Such attacks have serious implications for nuclear safety, security and safeguards, as well as regional and international peace and security”
He further reiterated important principles laid down in its resolutions by General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which state that
“any armed attack on and threat against nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes constitutes a violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter, international law and the Statute of the Agency”.
There are serious concerns as the radiations caused by such attacks can affect populations, and can go beyond borders.
Iran reported partial impact on Nantaz facility, whereas, no radiation levels rose in other two facilities.
IAEA also works to ensure compliances, and reports to its Board of Governors. In 2025, the IAEA in its 2025 report stressed on Iran for compliance of Article 7.C of the Statute of of the Agency, and article 19 of Iran’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement, which require disclosure of information related to nuclear facilities or any related activities, and verifications. In its report, IAEA called on Iran to provide necessary designs as is mandated under the Non-proliferation Treaty of which Iran is a signatory.
Iran had earlier reached deal with the US and other nations involving U.S., China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom signed the deal in 2015, known a the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the JCPOA. Even earlier to that, there had been attempts for direct negotiations on the Nuclear non-proliferation even before this. Despite all, scrutiny of Iran’s nuclear program brings into question the degree of fairness in influencing the same pressure on Iran’s basic adversary in the Middle East, Israel. The fact that some nations have chosen to not be members of the Non-proliferation Treaty, without facing any real repercussions, only makes the narrative of nuclear weapons as a “deterrence”, to be stronger. This is the dangerous predicament that the world faces.
Previous Negotiations and a Lingering Sense of Betrayal
Iran, retaliated to US strikes on its nuclear facilities by attacking their airbase in Qatar. To avoid further escalation in the Middle East, US was quickly moved to reach a peace deal between Iran and Israel, but it only took only four hours for Israel to break away from it. The betrayal is not something that can be forgotten during peace negotiations. Even in that 12-day conflict, we have a toll of 1,062 innocent Iranian lives were lost, whereas Israel suffered 29 casualties.
It is also a very important to consider the factors that led the Trump to order strikes on 28th February. There was no legal or moral backing because these strikes on Iran came in the midst of on-going negotiations led by Oman that began in January. In the talks, Steve Whitkoff played a key role in what led to Trump quickly firing the trigger. Some media and think tanks suggest, Whitkoff apparently had no technical insights into Iran’s complex uranium and nuclear enrichment programs. Yet in the discussion, as claimed by the Omani Foreign Minister, that Iran had agreed to not having stockpiles, something, the media had missed. In a TV interview , this is what he had to say:
“It really makes the enrichment argument less relevant, because now we are talking about zero stockpiling. And that is very, very important, because if you cannot stockpile material that is enriched then there is no way you can actually create a bomb, whether you enrich or don’t enrich. And I think this is really something that has been missed a lot by the media, and I want to clarify that from the standpoint of a mediator.”
But a grievous lost opportunity here remains that Iran had also agreed to talks and cooperation with GCC countries and to improve on ties with them.
“we have agreed, in general, to discuss economic and security cooperation between Iran and its neighbors, and set up a process of dialogue that will really start the elements of building confidence, building a rapport, building a process that can really lead us to reach an understanding on all these various areas of concern, areas of concern on the Iranian side, and areas of concern on the GCC side.”
On 26th February, Iran had agreed to meet with head of the IAEA, for allowing inspections, during the upcoming technical negotiations that was scheduled in Geneva for 2nd March. The zero stockpiling, no enrichment program, removing all capacities for developing a nuclear bomb, agreeing on ways for allowing for IAEA inspectors and further fostering co-operations with GCC countries as part of the almost reached peace deal was brutally cut short and sabotaged when US along with Israel struck Tehran on the 28th February. “Regime change” is what they came up for, but in reality, the military objectives remained unclear, which is exactly what makes the war more dangerous than any met in the Middle East.
The earlier betrayal was remembered by Iran when in Oman for the talks. The repeated breach of trust was again expressed during recent inconclusive talks in Islamabad during its first round.
This time again, Iran’s Foreign Minister Agrachi claimed they were just “inches away from an MOU” in Islamabad.
What Memory speaks of US-Iran Relations
It speaks of recklessness when it comes to Iran. There are two very prominent US interventions that are crucial to mention in order to understand what shapes Iran and its relations with the world today.
Operation TPAJAX of 1953, that perhaps became the reason for the start of 1979 Islamic Revolution. In 2013, after decades of legal battles by National Security Archives, after leaks in the New York Times in 2000, CIA officially published memoirs of its direct involvement in the coup to overthrow Mossadeq’s democratically elected parliament in 1953, and bringing Iran under direct monarchy of Reza Shah Pehlavi, because of the fear that Mossadeq’s policy for nationalization of the oil companies will disrupt cheap global supply to the West. The coup brought the country to the brink of a civil war with infights within the military ranks between Shah loyalists and those upholding Mossadeq’s legal government. Political as well as religious propoganda was used to incite sentients against Mossadeq.
The other, is the scandalous arms sale to Iran in 1981. It was first disclosed by a Lebanese magazine and later revealed by Seymour M. Hersh in his comprehensive story for New York Times published in 1991. For the latter double gaming by indirectly permitting by permitting US made arms sale by Israel to Iran, at a time when the US hostages from Iran had just been recovered in 1981.This was a shocking revelation because it came during the time when US had declared embargo on Iran. Where sales were being made to Iran under covers, US was also directly supporting Iraq during its invasion of Iran, where it did not shy away even from using chemical weapons. The long war, again resulted in about 500,000 lives.
There were other instances that rendered the intentions and aims in the middle east, questionable, because such covert actions here have come at the cost of leaving thousands dead to ensure control over oil resources and in the region. Such ultimately, became the experiments whose consequences had ultimately gone wrong, volatile and rogue.
Leaving US Isolated in its war with Iran?
To say that EU nations are siding with the US or not, is complex. There are dilemmas that become too obvious in their repressed diplomatic expressions over on-going blatant human rights abuses. On the other hand, Europe is in the midst dealing with public anger over their inaction. The the angst towards US for being a direct partner to it. His tweet, threatening of an annihilation of an “entire civilization” was a political disaster even in his home base. On the other hand, Europe is at a risk of straining its most crucial partner for keeping the Global North, influential. But this partnership is at a brink, with rising costs as a result of this war, and Trump shifting the burden on Europe for not siding in this campaign. Trump’s intentions over Greenland earlier, had also caused great resentment, in particular among the Nordic states.
As for NATO, they had managed deployments in Cyprus when UK air base was attacked by a drone, and intercepted missiles over Turkey. But could not commit to an active engagement with the US on the Strait of Hormuz. There was no legal basis for carrying out this venture, that was not defensive.
The Gulf nations that have come under fire from Iran for hosting US bases and commercial centres, hold their resentment, even if they had not retaliated. Things were on the verge of a retaliation when Pakistan finally spoke against Iran’s strikes on Saudi Arabia, reminding it will have to take a side, as Pakistan is bound to honor Strategic Defense Pact with Saudi Arabia. It is also important to recall, on the day when peace talks were underway in Islamabad, Pakistan had already sent fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.
There’s a need to understand where the integrity lies guided by a sense of balance in a volatile world that run on uncontrolled ambitions of influence and of unquestioned dominance of the region which comprises of the GCC nations, North Africa, Central and South Asia. This is the region ferociously preyed upon not just by its direct foes but by the proxies and militants they run, some of which in their control, others acting on the loose. The menace of proxies or the non-state actors, needs to be cleared for a meaningful and lasting peace to take place, because safeguarding human lives should not be a negotiable bait under any circumstances.
Can we expect Peace?
We can. It will be meaningful and longstanding only if there is an acknowledgement that human rights and accountability have to be at the heart of the matter of these talks. But the pressure for holding them comes from the need to open the trade routes and keeping markets in control. What is missing is that genocides and mass killings have gone unaccounted, humanitarian aid important to save lives have been halted and ceased, the credibility of the UN as peacemaking agent has been lost. What are we really expecting to last if there remains no realization and admission of the recklessness that has caused a perpetual unrest and the precious lives lost. Peace without acknowledgment of the great wrongs, and without accountability, will not be sustainable. Memory of brutality is not easily erased.
Zeeba T. Hashmi is an opinion writer and a researcher exploring themes of education that interconnect with issues of indoctrination, hate speech, knowledge barriers and politics on education. She runs her think tank, Ibtidah for Education.
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