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Iran: Certain states use unilateral coercive measures as political leverage
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said certain states use unilateral coercive measures against other countries as political leverage.
Such measures are a major obstacle to provision of international humanitarian assistance, Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on Tuesday at a meeting of the UN General Assembly, Press TV reported.
The international community is confronted with emerging challenges in trying to address humanitarian emergency condition, Takht-Ravanchi added.
The envoy condemned “imposition of the unilateral coercive measures by certain states, which use them as political leverage in their bilateral relations.”
He denounced the measures “as one of the main obstacles hindering international assistance as well as one of the main sources in creating humanitarian crises.”
He went on to say that Iran, which is exposed to a variety of natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, dust and sandstorms, has severely been damaged by illegal unilateral sanctions by the United States, Takht-Ravanchi underlined.
The US began unleashing a whole host of sanctions against Iran following the victory of the latter’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.
It temporarily suspended some of the bans following the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear accord between the Islamic Republic and world countries.
Upon conclusion, the JCPOA was ratified by the UN Security Council as its Resolution 2231.
The US, however, quit the agreement under former president Donald Trump in 2018 and restored the economic measures that the accord had lifted.
The US keeps enforcing the sanctions against the Islamic Republic, although, the International Court of Justice issued an order on October 3, 2018, unanimously requiring Washington to remove any impediments on the importation of foodstuffs as well as medicines and medical devices to Iran.
Separately, the Iranian envoy also called on the world body “to investigate deviation of humanitarian aid and non-humanitarian activities carried out under the guise of providing humanitarian assistance.”
UN chief’s report on Iran human rights based on terrorists’ claims: Tehran
Tehran dismissed as politically motivated a recent report by UN Secretary General António Guterres on human rights in Iran, saying the Islamic Republic remains committed to promoting human rights, irrespective of the fact that the report was based on false claims made by terrorists.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that Iran has sent its detailed comments and arguments on each and every paragraph of the UN chief’s report to his office but Iran’s response has been regrettably neglected, Press TV reported.
The report “is based on false claims and documents based on unreliable sources and, therefore, the main text of the report is mainly based on the contents of the claims and accusations of hostile groups and terrorist cults,” he said.
Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, UN deputy human rights chief Nada al-Nashif presented Guterres’ latest report, which strongly criticized Iran over executions in the country and other issues.
“The secretary general is deeply concerned by the increase of executions, including for drug-related offenses,” Al-Nashif said.
Guterres also claimed that Iran has used coercive measures against dissidents.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman explained that the Islamic Republic continues to be fully committed to promoting human rights due to its religious beliefs and legal obligations and is ready to cooperate with UN human rights bodies.
He said the report fails to mention the responsibility of those behind anti-Iran sanctions and refuses to acknowledge the negative and destructive effects of inhumane US sanctions against the country.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights also criticized the UN chief’s statement, saying it was a “non-reflection of the country’s human rights developments and achievements.”
It said granting the mandate of compiling a country-specific report to the secretary-general on human rights, while there is an international expert mechanism in this regard, is basically “unreasonable and illogical as well as both unnecessary and unprofessional.”
Meanwhile, Khatibzadeh also described a recent UN General Assembly resolution about the situation of human rights in Iran as “politically motivated” and “unfair.”
Iran congratulates Petro on victory in Colombia’s presidential election
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian congratulated Gustavo Petro on his victory in Colombia’s presidential election.
In a message posted on his Twitter account on Wednesday, the Iranian foreign minister praised the people of Colombia for participating in a free and democratic presidential election.
Petro, a former guerilla who has promised profound social and economic change, emerged victorious in Sunday’s presidential runoff election to become Colombia’s first left-wing president.
The former guerrilla won by a slim margin with over 50% of the votes, against 77-year-old entrepreneur Rodolfo Hernandez. In this historic win, his running mate Francia Marquez will now become the first Afro-Colombian to hold executive powers, CNN wrote.
Detained Mossad agents planned to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists: Official
An Iranian judiciary official said the three agents working for the Israeli Mossad spy agency, who were arrested in April, were planning to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists.
“The arrest of these Mossad operatives followed a complicated intelligence operation that lasted eight months,” Mehdi Shamsabadi, the prosecutor general of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province, told reporters on Tuesday, according to Press TV.
“Ample evidence has been gathered against them in such a way that they did not even make any objection when a warrant for their arrest was issued,” he added.
The official noted that some members of the cell have been arrested in the country’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province while other members and operatives have been detained outside the province by Iran’s intelligence forces.
“The defendants have confessed that some of them had been in direct contact with Mossad agents,” Shamsabadi emphasized.
He said the case is currently under preliminary investigation and that an indictment would be filed and sent to court soon.
The official did not specify the nationalities of the agents.
In a statement on April 20, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced the arrest of the three Mossad agents in Sistan and Baluchestan.
It said at the time that the spies were involved in disseminating classified information and documents and noted that the trio had been arrested upon a judicial order.
A US think tank has recently said that Israel’s strategy on Iran has been a dismal failure, warning that Tehran’s sharp response to the regime’s provocations could spark a regional confrontation.
The Atlantic Council said in an article that Israel’s futile endeavors include various covert operations such as acts of sabotage, assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists and members of the Quds Forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as well as a threat to bomb Iran’s nuclear installations.
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