Iran’s rights official: US ‘directly’ responsible for any act of terror

Iran’s top human rights official says the United States is “directly” responsible for any act of terror since it was Washington that created many terrorist groups.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, said the Islamic Republic has all the necessary documents proving the United States set up terrorist groups not only inside Iran but across the region.

“Groups such as al-Qaeda, Daesh and the al-Nusra were all created by the United States and the responsibility for the terrorist acts by these groups and their members lies directly with the US.”

Gharibabadi said the US and its Western allies hatched a plot after the victory of the Islamic Revolution to “disintegrate various parts of the country by creating terrorist groups.”

One such group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) has killed and martyred more than 17,000 oppressed Iranian people, he said, adding that Tehran has warned Western countries that the MKO would show no mercy to them.

“We have recently witnessed events in France and Albania. These countries have now come to the conclusion that such groups are fundamentally terrorist and they even threaten their host countries,” Gharibabadi said.

Iran says ‘intrinsically terrorist’ MKO poses constant threat to its hosts

Iran insists the terrorist nature of the Western-backed MKO will always remain a threat to the security of its host countries.

MKO members spent many years in Iraq, where they were hosted and armed by the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. They sided with Saddam during the 1980-88 imposed war against Iran and then helped him quell domestic uprisings in various parts of the Arab country.

Albania began hosting the terrorists after the group was shunned by the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The European country is estimated to have been accommodating some 3,000 members of the terror cult since 2016.

Gharibabadi said while Iran has effectively worked to uproot terrorist groups in the region, the United States assassinated the top Iranian anti-terror commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and his companions.

Foreign Ministry: Assassination of Gen. Soleimani by US, 'glaring example of organized terrorist act’

Iran’s Foreign Ministry says General Soleimani

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi fellow Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were martyred along with their companions in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020.

The two anti-terror commanders were tremendously revered across the region for their instrumental role in fighting and decimating the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

'Crimes against humanity'

“Illegal unilateral” sanctions are among the principal crimes committed by Washington against Tehran, the official said, in reference to the United States’ numerous crimes against Iran.

“The US has committed a humanitarian crime against the Iranian nation. Washington has imposed the most extensive and cruel sanctions against the people of Iran.”

Iran: US Sanctions are ‘crime against humanity’, affect most vulnerable people

An Iranian envoy to the UN denounces as “crime against humanity” the imposition of unilateral sanctions against the nation.

The top Iranian rights official said the US has imposed unilateral sanctions on over 25 countries but still claims to defend human rights.

In May 2018, the US began to unilaterally impose the “toughest ever” sanctions against Iran after then President Donald Trump left the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Trump failed to reach his professed goals with his “maximum pressure” campaign. But the bans have hurt the Iranian population.

Preserved under the Joe Biden administration, the US sanctions have restricted the financial channels necessary to pay for basic goods and medicine.

Gharibabadi further said the United States’ record is replete with crimes against Iran and numerous other countries including Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Iraq and Afghanistan.

"More than 35 million people have been killed by the US," he said. "Of those, 27 million have been Native Americans, and 4.5 million people were killed in the Vietnam War. Furthermore, in Cuba, Mexico, Iraq, and Afghanistan, numerous massacres and crimes against humanity have been committed."

The senior Iranian rights official said “some 4,000 people die in prisons in the United Sates every year,” so Washington is in no position to talk about human rights.

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