UN should investigate Washington’s ‘crimes against humanity’ - lawmaker

Russia's top lawmaker said early Sunday that the UN should investigate Washington's "crimes against humanity," referencing former Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the UN Security Council in 2003, where he claimed Iraq had a rogue weapons of mass destruction program.

"20 years have passed since one of the biggest deceptions of the world community by the US. At a meeting of the UN Security Council, Secretary of State Powell accused Iraq of producing weapons of mass destruction, presenting a test tube with 'white matter' as evidence," head of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said on Telegram.

Volodin said the UN Security Council did not give Washington permission to use force but that the US attacked Iraq anyway, resulting in half a million civilians becoming victims, while the country's president was executed.

Noting that Powell later admitted that the test tube scene was "a hoax" and that Washington has not been held responsible for this, Volodin claimed that the entire policy of the US and the collective West is "based on lies."

"It was the same with the 'non-expansion' of NATO to the east. The (2014) Minsk agreements also turned out to be a hoax -- only this time (former German Chancellor Angela) Merkel and (former French President Francois) Hollande acted as Powell. The UN should investigate Washington's crimes against humanity," Volodin said.

"The politicians who made the decisions should be punished for the millions of victims, refugees, broken destinies, destroyed states," he added.

Powell's 2003 speech before the UN Security Council claimed that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was in possession of a rogue weapons of mass destruction program. That claim served as the backbone for the US' invasion of the country.