News / Interviews

US uses human rights as political tool against other states: Activist

Sunday, 05 March 2017 5:11 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 05 March 2017 5:11 PM ]

This file photo shows US State Department in Washington, DC.

Iran has dismissed the recent US allegations of human rights violation in the Islamic Republic, saying Washington is in no position to make any judgment about other countries’ human rights situation.

Massoud Shadjareh, head of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, believes that human rights has become a “political tool” in the hands of Washington to attack other governments, adding that no other nation is undermining human rights principles more than the United States.

“It is really astonishing. What we are seeing in the recent years - not just since the [US President Donald] Trump’s era [has begun], but even [in former US president, Barack] Obama’s era and beyond - [are] ... systematic abuses of human rights and the matter is becoming worse rather than better,” the activist told Press TV in an interview on Sunday.

“We have seen the United States not just at the time of Afghanistan and Iraq and Guantanamo ... but also [through the use of] drones, [and] we are seeing systematic assassination of individuals and groups and their families and their neighbors, [and we know that] 75 percent of those who are killed by drones are innocent people,” he explained.

Shadjareh also highlighted the fact that US allies in the region – namely, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain – have been encouraged to commit war crimes in broad daylight and they are being supported and “armed to the teeth” to continue their atrocities.

He also denounced the racism that is unleashed against ethnic minorities in the United States, asserting that the human rights situation is getting worse in the country because of Trump’s new policies.

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