Iran Rejects US Human Rights Report
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected the allegations of human rights violation raised in an annual report by the US State Department, saying Washington had better deal with the list of its own violations of human rights instead of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.
Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham categorically rejected the US report on Friday, and highlighted Iran’s commitment to respecting human rights as a “humanitarian, national and Islamic duty.”
“The US had better assume its own internal responsibilities instead of interfering in the internal affairs of the other countries on the pretext of (caring for) human rights,” Afkham underlined.
On Thursday, the US State Department released its 2014 report on human rights conditions in the world, accusing Iran of continuing to "severely restrict civil liberties."
“It is crystal clear that such reports that are prepared with specific objectives are leverages for exerting pressure and bargaining and also are excuses for interfering in the internal affairs of the other countries,” Afkham noted.
She said the US report, whose concerns are totally unbelievable for the readers, comes while Iran’s president has been elected with a turnout of more than 73 percent and has also put the “citizenship rights charter” to national debate to fulfill his election campaign pledges.
Meanwhile, at the very same year that such report was being drafted in the US, “the highest record of protests and violations of rights of the colored people” occurred in the United States, and Washington’s regional allies also committed the most widespread crimes against people, Afkham pointed out.
She further enumerated the cases of human rights violation in the US, including a rise in racism, widespread discrimination against African-Americans, a surge in Islamophobia, crackdown on religious minorities, discrimination against migrants, US police brutality, and Washington’s unconditional support for the Zionist regime of Israel’s atrocities.
The spokeswoman also took a swipe at the US for the threat to retain anti-Iran human rights sanctions, stressing, “The whole issues of sanctions against Iran are illegitimate and lack legal credibility. The time has come for the US government to exclude the worn-out and useless tool of sanctions from the list of its leverages.”
She underscored that Iran continues to fulfill its local and international commitments, care for the human rights status and sticks to the plans for upgrading citizenship rights regardless of the allegations and claims in such reports.