Spokesman:

US Not Qualified to Raise Human Rights Allegations against Iran

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi blasted the US for raising human rights allegations against Tehran, reminding Washington of its dark human rights record.

News ID: 444649

Date: 03 May 2019 - 18:18

RNA - US State Department's Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus had on Tuesday said that her country condemns what she called as "the Iranian regime’s crackdown on women’s rights advocates".

Mousavi lashed out at her remarks, saying that respecting human rights is necessary for all countries.

"But the US with its dark record of human rights in and outside the US is necessitated to rapidly review" its measures and records in human rights.

He also reminded the US of its shameful silence on the recent beheading of 37 Saudi nationals, saying, "In US view, the human rights positions which had earlier been used as political instruments have now turned into a good that is traded."

"The US economic terrorism through blind sanctions against a (Iranian) nation is the biggest and most extensive violation of humans' economic and social rights," Mousavi said.

Iran says that the United State and other western states' record of human rights violations disqualifies their judgement on the records of other states.

In late 2012, the Iranian foreign ministry rapped Washington for its dark human rights record, and urged the UN officials to suspend the United States' membership in the world body's Human Rights Council.

"It is obvious that the US administration with its negative record of human rights and its actions in violation of the criteria and standards of the UN human rights conventions and treaties is not qualified to be a member of the Human Rights Council which is the most important international human rights mechanism," former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said as the US had applied for membership in the UN Human Rights Council.

He also announced that Iran along with the developing countries which had played a pivotal role in the formation of the UN Human Rights Council wanted to oppose the US membership in the Council in the elections held during the UN General Assembly meeting.

The US has been staunchly criticizing human rights conditions in other countries, while it itself has been widely blamed for trampling upon minority rights.

In November, 2010, the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a report on the violation of human rights by the US inside and outside its borders, and urged Washington to sign the international conventions which prohibit such crimes.

It was stressed in the Foreign Ministry report that the United States, as a self-proclaimed standard bearer of defense for human rights in the world, has despite the international community and the UN demand, and even despite former President Barack Obama's promise, still not shut down the Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib horrendous prisons.

It is stressed in the report that the United States has not yet joined the most important convention related to the economic, social and cultural rights that is among the most important human rights documents.

The Children's Rights Committee of the United Nations, too, has announced that the United States has been one of the greatest producers and distributors of the world child pornography products, while it is now one of the only two countries in the world that have not yet joined the International Children's Rights Convention.

On January 27, 2014, Iran’s Basij (Volunteer) Force released a comprehensive report on the violation of human rights by the US inside the country and abroad.

The report was unveiled in a ceremony participated by former Commander of Iran's Basij Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, former Parliament's First Vice-Speaker Hassan Aboutorabi Fard, Iranian judiciary chief and a number of Judiciary officials and experts.

The report referred to different cases of violation of human rights by the US, including the executions, arbitrary detentions, torture of inmates, violation of people’s privacy, violation of the rights of the minorities, Muslims and native Americans, racism and former US President Barack Obama’s opposition to the freedom of expression.

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