Iran rejects US human rights report

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (File Photo)

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday dismissed the recent US State Department annual report over human rights situation in the Islamic republic, Tasnim news agency reported. “Due to its awful and dark human rights record, either inside that country or at the international level, the US government is in no position to comment on the status of human rights in other countries,” Xinhua news agency quoted the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.

Qasemi said that no international organisation or law has authorised the US government to judge the status of human rights around the world one-sidedly and with political motivations. Friday review of human rights by the US State Department on Iran alleged that there have been “severe restrictions on civil liberties” including freedoms of speech, gatherings, religion and press in the Islamic republic in 2016.

The review chided the Iranian government for reportedly committing arbitrary or unlawful killings, “including, most commonly, by execution after arrest and trial without due process”. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday that some Western states use the human rights issue as a tool for their political ends.