‘Iran has never taken countermeasures against perpetrators of cyberattacks’

TEHRAN,May 25(MNA) – Ali Reza Miryousefi, the head of the press office of the mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, has dismissed the claims that Iran is behind cyber attacks against the United States. Miryousefi made the comments in an article published in the May 23 edition of the New York Times in response to an article entitled “Cyberattacks Against U.S. Corporations Are on the Rise,” which was published in the May 13 edition of the paper. Following is the text of the article: Although Iran has been the recipient of protracted waves of state-sponsored cyberattacks attempting to target Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities, power grids, oil terminals and other industrial sectors, it has never taken countermeasures against the perpetrators of cyberattacks. Nor, contrary to the article’s assertion, has Iran ever engaged in such attacks against its Persian Gulf neighbors, with which Iran has maintained good neighborly relations. Unfortunately, wrongful acts such as authorizing the 2010 Stuxnet attack against Iran have set a bad, and dangerous, precedent in breach of certain principles of international law. This also ignores the United Nations Charter’s principle of refraining from threat or use of force in international relations, which definitely entails responsibility for its consequences. Iran, as the current head of the Non-Aligned Movement and a responsible member of the international community, has been at the forefront of calling for the strengthening of international legal instruments against cyberwarfare. Cybersecurity is a global issue, transcending national boundaries, and therefore it requires collective efforts of responsible states to reach a comprehensive international agreement similar to other arrangements on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.