Tehran Berates EU for Interference Under Pretext of Rights Violations
IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK
TEHRAN – Iran’s ambassador to the UN headquarters in Geneva has lashed out at certain Western governments, especially those in Europe, for interfering in other countries’ affairs under the pretext of human rights violations.
Esmaeil Baqaei Hamaneh said some Western countries are using human rights as an excuse to reach their goals.
“Western countries’ approach toward human rights issues will only create discord and standoffs between countries and downgrade human rights to be used as a tool to achieve political objectives,” he said.
“Some European countries have turned the Human Rights Council into an arena to meddle in the affairs of developing nations,” the top diplomat added.
“It is regrettable that some countries preach about respecting human rights while they have forgotten the crimes that they have committed in the past and present, and they cover up the fact that a great part of the predicaments that others are facing is the fallout from their own colonial policies and domineering mentality,” he noted.
“The rule of law is a prerequisite to the protection of, and respect for human rights,” he said.
“Exerting pressure on other governments under the banner of human rights in order to change domestic legal systems or interfere in judicial cases is unacceptable,” he underlined.
“The best way to realize the objectives of the [Human Rights] Council is dialogue and cooperation based on the principle of neutrality and avoiding stigmatizing and stereotyping others,” the ambassador said.
Earlier Foreign Ministry spokesman said Iran has dismissed as ‘unacceptable, baseless and selective’ a joint statement by European countries on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic, saying it is in fundamental contrast with approaches to promote the issue globally.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran regards the European Union’s move to present the joint statement in the Human Rights Council as unacceptable,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.
He added that any abuse of human rights mechanism and interference in Iran’s internal affairs is by no means acceptable.
“This is not a new episode that some European countries remain indifferent and silent vis-à-vis the biggest [cases] of human rights violation [committed] by the very states and their allies.”
“They are racing among themselves to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and [other] dictators in the region to kill the defenseless Yemeni people,” the Iranian official added.
Khatibzadeh emphasized that these European states assume that the suppression of protesters, the killing of Blacks, massacre of minorities, particularly Muslims, and the torture of prisoners as well as exerting pressure on refugees inside the EU borders is tantamount to the implementation of rules but at the same time, they claim that the “enforcement of judicial actions in accordance with criminal law by a fair court in other countries is violation of human rights.”
Such a double standard indicates lack of the Europeans’ sincerity to support human rights and their use of this concept for political purposes, he said.
“The development and promotion of human rights at national, regional and international levels within the framework of religious commitments and adherence to the constitution and regional regulations as well as international treaties are among enduring priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and it is committed to observing them in practice.”
