Iran: U.S. must be held accountable for unilateral coercive measures
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told the 52nd regular meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that the United States administrations must be held to account for perpetrating the heinous crimes.
Addressing the meeting on Monday, Iran’s top diplomat said that protection and promotion of human rights is a shared sentiment for all nations.
“No state or a group of states should entitle themselves to claim exclusive ownership or custody of human rights. Nor should any state coerce others into submitting to any self-styled interpretation of human rights,” he added.
For Iran, the foreign minister said, respect for ‘human rights and dignity’ is a core value that is deeply rooted in the national tradition and profoundly embedded in the Iranians’ religious beliefs.
“We have worked tirelessly and constantly toward better protection and promotion of human rights and dignity. We have learned throughout our long history that we should neither be disheartened nor distracted by the odds,” the top diplomat stated.
Unilateral coercive measures (UCMs), as unlawful and inhumane as they are, systematically and flagrantly violate fundamental human rights of the targeted populations, Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that the United States administrations must be held to account for perpetrating the heinous crimes.
“Those European and other states that comply and over-comply with the U.S.’ unilateral coercive measures should be accountable as accomplices in the crime. Neither of them has any moral high ground to talk about Iran’s human rights. That’s a sheer hypocrisy to advocate for the human rights of the Iranians while depriving the same people of their basic rights to health, to education, and to life,” Iran’s foreign minister highlighted.
The United States alone, he added, is responsible for the bulk of systematic and grave human rights violations as it ranks number one in terms of military aggressions and interventions, coup d’états, and economic embargoes against other countries.
Meetings with counterparts
On the sidelines of the UN conference, the top Iranian diplomat held separate meetings with a number of his counterparts, including the foreign ministers of Finland, Belgium, and Armenia.
During a meetings, the Iranian foreign minister and his European counterparts talked about various issues, such as the relations between Iran and the European countries, negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal and removal of sanctions against Tehran, ways to end the war in Ukraine, cooperation between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the unconstructive stances that the US and a number of Europeans adopted on the recent riots in Iran.
In his meeting with Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, Amir-Abdollahian pointed to the wrong assessment of some European countries about the recent riots in Iran, and emphasized that bilateral relations and issues should not be affected by these wrong calculations.
He also said that Tehran is ready to solve the problem related to the prisoners of the two countries.