US unqualified to speak out on human rights, faces violations: Gharibabadi

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A senior Iranian legal official says the United States is in no position to discuss the human rights issue given its widespread violations on the international stage.

The United States is by no means entitled to talk about it [the issue of] Human rights,” Secretary of Iran’s High Council on Human Rights Kazem Gharibabadi said on Sunday.

The official delivered the remarks on the sidelines of the Fourth International Conference on American Human Rights from the Perspective of Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

“This government (the US government) should be held accountable to the oppressed peoples who have lost their lives as a result of terrorism, sanctions, aggression and occupation,” Gharibabadi added.

He cited the example of the people of Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and its allies are fighting a US-backed war. The Yemenis have still been denied the most basic humanitarian aid due to the “imperialist sentiments and gross human rights abuses” of the invaders and their supporters, the official noted.

Ali Baqeri-Kani, deputy political affairs officer at Iran’s foreign ministry, told the conference trampling on the human rights of independent peoples is an “essential part” of US foreign policy.

“It is safe to say that there is not a nation in the world today that has not tasted the bitter taste of the American version of human rights,” he said.

The greatest violation that can be committed against human rights is to “politicize” the issue, he said, adding, “Today, human rights are becoming a smokescreen and a tool for the expansion and institutionalization of the dominance of American unilateralism.”

“Terrorism, Sanctions Pillars of American Human Rights”

Baqeri-Kani viewed “sanctions and terrorism” as the main pillars of the American version of human rights, adding, “If they are deprived of those two pillars, they may not be able to continue their dominance and their conspiracies.”

The official defined US unilateral sanctions as a means of collectively targeting and punishing all people without exception or cause.

The United States withdrew its sanctions on Iran in 2018 after abandoning a historic deal between the Islamic Republic and others.

That same year, Iran brought the sanctions case to the International Court of Justice, which unanimously issued an interim measure order urging Washington to lift all sanctions on the import of humanitarian goods into the Islamic Republic.

“Based on all international principles and regulations, humanitarian goods are not subject to sanctions, but based on American human rights, sanctioning of food and medicine is not prohibited,” the official noted.

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