News / Politics

West using UN rights body as tool against Iran: FM

Sunday, 31 December 2023 9:54 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 31 December 2023 10:13 AM ]

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian meets with members of the special committee to investigate 2022 foreign-backed riots, in Tehran on December 31, 2023. (Photo by the Iranian Foreign Ministry)

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has called for an end to the Western countries’ “instrumental use” of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to exert pressure against the Islamic Republic.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Sunday during a meeting at the Foreign Ministry with members of the special committee formed upon a decree by President Ebrahim Raeisi to investigate 2022 foreign-backed riots across Iran.

He hailed Raeisi’s initiative as a clear sign of Iran’s “responsibility and seriousness about protecting and promoting human rights.”

He also condemned Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and the gross violation of Palestinians’ rights over the past eight decades, which are supported by the United States and the Western countries.

The West's anti-Iran claims concerning human rights in the Islamic Republic “lack any legal and moral validity,” Amir-Abdollahian added, urging an end to the “instrumental use of the UNHRC by certain Western countries.

“The mechanisms imposed by rights institutions on the Islamic Republic under the influence and pressure of a few Western states have no legal justification and legitimacy,” he said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the committee Hossein Mozaffar slammed the “dual approach” of the Western countries to human rights, saying they are using the concept as a tool to exert political pressure against independent nations while supporting Israeli genocide against Palestinians.

One year since Mahsa Amini’s death sparked West-backed riots in Iran

Foreign-backed riots broke out in Iran last September after the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, with rioters going on a rampage, brutally attacking security officers and causing massive damage to public property.

She fainted at a police station in the capital Tehran and was pronounced dead three days later at the hospital.

An official report by Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization concluded that Amini’s death was caused by illness rather than alleged blows to the head or other vital body organs.

Iran’s intelligence community said several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, used their spy and propaganda apparatuses to provoke unrest in the country.

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