West Misusing Human Rights Issue to Attack, Blackmail Islamic Iran


West Misusing Human Rights Issue to Attack, Blackmail Islamic Iran

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian judiciary official said the issue of human rights is exploited by the West against the Islamic Republic.

“Human rights has been turned (by the West) into a field for blackmailing and attacking the (Islamic) establishment,” Chief of the Iranian Judiciary’s Human Rights Council Mohammad Javad Larijani said in an interview with the Tasnim News Agency.

He highlighted the strategy of resistance against this onslaught launched by the West in the name of human rights.

He rejected Western criticism of Iran’s implementation of Islamic laws, stressing “we are steadfast in our commitment to Islamic rules and the Islamic system”.

Larijani underlined that human rights is not a western issue and the West has no right to impose its interpretation of the issue.

“We are proud of Islam and we implement the (Islamic) rules,” he stated.

The judiciary official also dismissed anti-Iran reports by Ahmad Shaheed, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, describing the reports as "superficial and professionally flawed."

In June 2011, the UN Human Rights Council, under pressure from the United States and its allies, named former Maldivian foreign minister, Ahmed Shaheed, as human rights rapporteur on Iran.

Tehran insists that the appointment of a UN special rapporteur on Iran’s human rights situation is a selective, politically-motivated and unacceptable move.

Elsewhere in his interview with Tasnim, Larijani pointed to the talks between Iran and the six world powers over Tehran' peaceful nuclear program, and urged the Iranian government to avoid extending the six-month period predicted for the negotiations with the world powers.

“We must demonstrate that we will not back down (from our position) either on the nuclear issue or on human rights,” he reiterated.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) in November last year signed an interim deal, known as Geneva Agreement, on Tehran’s nuclear case.

Based on the interim deal (the Joint Plan of Action), the world powers agreed to suspend some non-essential sanctions and to impose no new nuclear-related bans in return for Tehran's decision to suspend its 20% enrichment for a period of six months.

The breakthrough deal, which has come into effect since January 20, stipulates that over the course of six months, Iran and the six countries will draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal which will lead to a lifting of the whole sanctions on Iran.

The two sides wrapped up their latest round of high-level nuclear talks in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on April 9.

There will be a fresh round of high-level talks between Iran and the sextet beginning on May 13 in Vienna.

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