UN rapporteur better first wake up to crimes being committed against Iran: Foreign Ministry

Iran’s Foreign Ministry blasts the so-called UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran for coming up with fresh “heinous” claims concerning the Islamic Republic instead of paying attention to the actual crimes against humanity that were being committed against the country.

Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks on Wednesday in reaction to a new report devised by the UN official, Javaid Rehman, which has already been denounced by several other senior Iranian officials.

“The special rapporteur should, to begin with, wake up from [his] deep sleep and condemn the devastating effects of the economic terrorism on the Iranians’ access to [their] bare necessities, including medical and pharmaceutical items during the coronavirus pandemic,” the spokesman said.

He was referring to the United States’ sanctions that were impeding the access, and Washington’s way of forcing third countries into abiding by the coercive economic measures or risk coming under “secondary sanctions.”

Khatibzadeh called the claims made in the report that had based some of its contents on alleged information provided by foreign-based anti-Iran terrorist groups “spiteful and worthless” as well as “confrontational.”

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He said the report had been devised based on a selective approach and denounced the document for being issued in pursuance of political goals.

As a democratic establishment, the spokesman asserted, the Islamic Republic has invariably taken steps towards expansion and enhancement of the human rights on the national, regional, and international levels on the basis of its religious and legal commitments.

“The report can, under no circumstances, provide a real and veritable evaluation of the situation of human rights in Iran,” Khatibzadeh concluded.

On Monday, Rehman read his report to the UN General Assembly’s committee on human rights, in which he criticized Iran’s human rights situation and the country’s justice system.  

Kazem Gharibabadi, the secretary-general of Iran’s Human Rights Office, rejected the report, warning against misapplication of the issue of human rights as a “commodity and an instrument” for subjecting independent and developing countries to pressure.

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“At a time when the world is suffering from the attitudes and policies of such Western countries like the United States, issuance of such a report against the Islamic Republic, which, itself, is a victim of these countries’ actions is a completely political and diversionary measure,” he said.

The “ill-intentioned” report, the official lamented, had intentionally ignored various instances of extensive progress in the area of human rights in Iran.

“The Islamic Republic constantly moves towards enhancement and betterment of human rights, and this is based on religious guidelines not international obligations or political reports,” he noted.

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