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US report on religious freedom in Iran invalid: Foreign Min.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has rejected as “invalid” a report by the US Department of State on religious freedom in Iran.

“The clichéd report" by the US Department of State is the repetition of the accusations which the Islamic Republic of Iran has on different occasions rejected as "totally false,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Thursday.

She added that such reports are "invalid and have no legal basis” because they "are prepared with the aim of achieving political goals and objectives."

On October 14, US Secretary of State John Kerry submitted the 2014 International Religious Freedom Report to the US Congress.

The report, comprising almost 200 distinct reports on countries and territories, alleges that “Iran executed, detained, harassed, and discriminated against members of religious minority groups.”

The US report on religious rights is in line with Washington’s policies to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and is viewed as an attempt to create religious and sectarian division in Iran.

"Iran’s Constitution recognizes [the rights of] religious minorities such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, who have freedom in practicing their rituals,” Afkham said.

She went on to say that other minorities, which have not been recognized in the Iranian Constitution, enjoy all citizenship rights like other Iranians.

Afkham further noted that the US report comes as the international community has recently expressed concern over spiraling Islamophobia in the US, adding that discrimination against Muslims has become routine in the US governmental institutions, especially among the US police, and “the US government has taken no effective measure to stop this trend.”


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