TEHRAN -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Thursday strongly dismissed “hypocritical allegations” by the U.S. administration about the human rights situation in Iran, saying Washington aims to achieve its illegitimate political goals by spreading such accusations.
Khatibzadeh made the comment in response to the U.S. State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released on Tuesday, saying the publication of repetitive and baseless reports would lend no legitimacy to such reports.
“The U.S. government, with a history full of wars, coups, aggression, assassinations, kidnappings, economic blockades and the killing of innocent people around the world, has been the main violator of human rights and, therefore, it is in no way qualified to speak of such sublime concepts as human rights,” Khatibzadeh said.
“The United States sheds crocodile tears for the Iranian nation while its crimes against the country ... will live on in the minds of the Iranian people forever,” he said.
“The United States’ unilateral coercive measures, including illegal economic sanctions imposed
by that country, which are a clear example of economic terrorism against the Iranian people as they prevent the import of necessary drugs for Iranian patients, have amounted to gross violation of the rights of the Iranian people.”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the U.S. administration’s human rights allegations are hypocritical and aimed at achieving the country’s illegitimate political goals.
“The direct order of former U.S. president [Donald Trump] for the cowardly assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was a hero in the fight against terrorism in the West Asia region, has laid bare the terrorist nature of the United States.”
Khatibzadeh said the U.S. government has consistently turned a blind eye to gross and systematic violations of human rights within its own country and by its allies.
The Iranian official said everyone has time and again seen various cases of racial discrimination happening against minorities and African Americans in the United States on a systemic and extensive basis, which in turn have led to widespread protests by black people and the public in the country.
“The Islamic Republic ... has always moved in the direction of realizing the rights of the great nation of Iran ... and such baseless and hypocritical statements and reports will not cause it to falter in this regard and will not weaken the resolve of the Iranian government and nation in their march to build a dignified Iran on the basis of its own religious values and principles,” Khatibzadeh said.
The US State Department in its annual report on April 12 once against leveled such baseless accusations against Iran as “arbitrary arrest or detention” of political activists, “denial of fair public trial,” as well as “politically motivated reprisal against individuals located outside of the country.”
Iran has repeatedly warned of the exploitation of human rights as a pressure tool by Western countries.