TEHRAN (Iran News) – In recent days,  Tehran had been hosting a top U.N. rapporteur who was in Tehran to review the impacts of the U.S. cruel and unilateral sanctions on the Iranian people and this will be an acid test for verifying the sincerity of the United Nations regarding the report of its official.

On Wednesday and during her last day in Tehran, the top UN human rights official slammed the United States for its brutal sanctions regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran, asserting that harsh economic sanctions have had a damaging impact on human rights in the country.

Alena Douhan, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights, who was on an official visit to Iran, convened a press conference in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters, Douhan noted that decades of sanctions have wholly affected Iranian people’s lives and have particularly hit the low-income section of the society.

While presenting her assessment of the unilateral coercive measures (UCM) against Iran, the UN official who works under a mandate from the United Nations Human Rights Council, called on Washington to abandon its hard-nosed policy of maximum pressure against Iran and other countries.

Following her meetings with many civil society members and representatives of financial centers, the UN official in her press conference reacted to the U.S. cruel sanctions.

She said she will address her concerns about the legality of U.S. sanctions in her final report, which will be released at a later date.

Douhan’s mission from May 7 to 18 was the first to Iran by a UN special rapporteur.

Before embarking on the trip, the UN official said she hoped to “gather first-hand information on the impact of unilateral coercive measures on the full realization of all human rights” in Iran.

“My visit will aim at covering all walks of life and sectors affected by such measures,” she noted, dismissing speculation in the Western media that she was heading to Iran with a specific agenda.

She told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. has since the 1970s imposed crippling economic and trade sanctions on Iran and significantly expanded them since the early 2000s.

According to the UN special rapporteur, the U.S. continues to illegally ban trade and investment in Iran, forcing foreign companies to leave the country for the fear of sanctions.

Douhan’s landmark visit to Iran came amid the stalemate over the nuclear deal, with the U.S. showing reluctance to respond to Iran’s proposals.

Decrying the U.S. decision to abandon the nuclear deal and continue with its sanctions regime, she said the deal was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

“Applying extraterritorial sanctions on Iranian companies or companies working with Iran … is illegal under international law,” she asserted.

Commenting on Iran’s frozen assets abroad, the UN official said the assets estimated to be around $120 billion need to be unblocked.

Last week, Iran’s top human rights official Kazem Gharibabadi said Douhan’s visit was only aimed at gathering information on the impact of sanctions to hold countries (U.S.) to account.

For years the UN bodies have tried to condemn the Islamic Republic of Iran after ant petty incident with accusing the country of some void charges and they have ignored condemning the U.S. or the Zionist atrocities. Nowadays the UN is busy with the Russia-Ukraine war and it seems the body has forgotten other international issues in other countries and we also do not expect the UN to take any serious action against the U.S. atrocities even by listening to this report which has been prepared by its own staff.

Simultaneous with her presence in Tehran and her press conference, some media outlets claimed that Douhan received illegal payment from the Chinese government in 2021 when she was in China to review human rights issue and the condition of the Muslims in this country and she was accused of closing her eyes on the Chinese government’s behavior regarding the Muslims in China.

Now after the press conference and publication of such negative claim against Douhan, we cannot expect the UN to blame the U.S. or it may ultimately pass it slightly because of this negative and poisonous climate created against this UN official.

Of course Tehran once again has showed its sincerity and let the UN rapporteur arrive in Tehran for preparing its documented report based on the existing facts in the country regarding the sanctions. Of course, Iranian nations have shown their resilience against the sanctions despite suffering hardships but they have made sanctions ineffective and the country is gradually recovering under the new government which has not tied the fate of the economy and country to the JCPOA talks in Vienna but Douhan’s visit will be another test for the UN’s sincerity  and its claims of defending human rights and rights of the nations.