UN report on Iran HR bears hallmark of US, Israel: Iranian MP

A member of Iran’s Majlis says the fingerprints of the Israeli regime and the US can easily be seen in the recent United Nations resolution about human rights in the Islamic Republic.

“The report is full of ambiguity, and such reports that are prepared in the West pursue the demands of the Zionist regime (Israel) and the US and they release such reports out of hostility,” a member of the Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Mohammad Hassan Asafari said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee passed a non-binding resolution, which was drafted by Canada and co-sponsored by other Western countries, with 83 countries voting in favor, 31 against, and 68 abstentions.

During the meeting, many delegates criticized the use of such country-specific resolutions, which they said set double standards and undermine international cooperation in the promotion and protection of human rights.

The Iranian lawmaker added that the General Assembly’s resolution mostly resembled a “statement,” saying, “The resolution had no characteristics of a research-based report because Ahmed Shaheed (the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran) only talked to the opposition.”

In a report in October, Shaheed accused Iran of various cases of human rights violations.

Following the release of the report, Iran’s High Council for Human Rights criticized it as a “propagandist text against the Islamic Republic” and said it lacked liability and integrity.

On Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast slammed the use of the issue of human rights as a political tool by Western countries against independent nations.

“These [Western] countries exaggerate and demonize the human rights situation in Iran while they have not only closed their eyes on the dire rights situation in their allied countries but are unable to be answerable for the numerous violations of their own citizens’ rights,” Mehmanparast said.