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Iran says US, Europe lack legal, moral authority to comment on human rights issues

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani

Iran says the United States and Europe lack the legal, judicial and moral competence to comment on human rights-related issues in other countries.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani on Saturday slammed new meddlesome statements of some American and European officials about human rights in Iran.

"Instead of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and trying to portray a humanitarian face, Western politicians had better heed the grievances of their own citizens and spend time on their own human rights and citizenship demands," Kan'ani said.

He said the United States and Europe are using human rights as a means to promote their own “illegitimate political objectives.”

The Iranian official said the widespread violation of the basic rights of Western citizens, including the right to freedom of expression, and the use of excessive force by the police against the protesting people in Europe and the States as well as the issuance of political statements about the internal regulations of other countries “clearly prove the instrumental use of human rights.”

Kan'ani said it is “very ridiculous” that those who have violated human rights of other nations and are openly breaching the rights of their own citizens while keeping silent on the heinous Israeli crimes against the Palestinians are commenting about the judicial punishment given to killers and promoters of violence against the Iranian people’s lives, peace and security.

The Iranian spokesman made the remarks in response to meddlesome comments made by a number of Western and American officials expressing concern about the execution of three men in Iran.

The three individuals, convicted of launching a deadly terrorist attack against security forces in Iran’s central city of Isfahan during foreign-backed riots last year, were executed in the country early Friday.

The European Union condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the execution. "The EU urges the Iranian authorities to refrain from applying the death penalty and carrying out future executions,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s office said in a statement.

And in Washington, Vedant Patel, the principal deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, said ahead of the executions, “We join the people of Iran and the international community in calling on Iran to not carry out these executions. The execution of these men…would be an affront to human rights and basic dignity in Iran and everywhere.”

 


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