The United Nations’ rights chief deplored Saturday’s strikes in the Middle East and urged all parties to return to negotiations, saying attacks would only result in “death, destruction and human misery”.

“I deplore the military strikes across Iran this morning by Israel and the United States of America, and the subsequent retaliatory strikes by Iran,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

“As always, in any armed conflict, it is civilians who end up paying the ultimate price.

“Bombs and missiles are not the way to resolve differences but only result in death, destruction, and human misery.

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“To avert these terrible consequences for civilians, I call for restraint and implore all parties to see reason, to de-escalate, and for a return to the negotiating table where they had been actively seeking a solution only hours earlier,” he said.

“Failing to do so risks an even wider conflict that will inevitably lead to further senseless civilian deaths and destruction on a potentially unimaginable scale, not just in Iran but across the Middle East region.”

On Thursday, US and Iranian negotiators held indirect talks in Geneva, through Omani mediators, on Tehran’s nuclear programme — within sight of Turk’s offices in the Swiss city.

The UN high commissioner for human rights reminded all parties that the protection of civilians was paramount in armed conflict, insisting that those who violated the rules of war must be held accountable.

Meanwhile the World Health Organization’s chief said he was deeply troubled by the unfolding situation and worried for the civilians caught in the crossfire.

“We urge leaders to choose the challenging path of dialogue over the senseless route of destruction,” the UN health agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“The world is watching and hoping for wisdom to prevail over weapons. Peace is the best medicine.”

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