Iran: U.S. Has No Authority to Speak on Human Rights
WANA (Sep 17) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran issued a statement on Tuesday night condemning the recent remarks by the U.S. Department of State on the anniversary of the September 2022 unrest. Tehran described the American statement as “filled with hypocrisy, deceit, and insolence,” calling it a clear example of “hostile and unlawful interference” in Iran’s internal affairs.
According to the statement, Washington has a “long history of interference in Iran’s affairs and committing crimes against the Iranian nation,” citing the 1953 coup d’état, U.S. support for Saddam Hussein during the eight-year Iran–Iraq war and the use of chemical weapons, the 1988 downing of an Iranian passenger plane, unilateral sanctions, and cooperation with Israel in attacks on nuclear facilities and the assassination of Iranian scientists.
The ministry stressed that “no rational and patriotic Iranian believes the claims of friendship and compassion made by a regime with such a record of crimes.”
The statement further denounced the United States as “the biggest supporter of the occupying and genocidal Zionist regime,” which, according to Tehran, “has killed more than 65,000 innocent people—mostly women and children—over the past two years.” On this basis, the ministry concluded that Washington “absolutely lacks the legitimacy to comment on the lofty concept of human rights.”
The ministry added: “The vigilant people of Iran judge the so-called human rights claims of American politicians in light of their duplicitous and criminal record across the globe, particularly in West Asia, and they will never forget or forgive the brutal crimes and unlawful interventions of the U.S. administration against their country.”
People attend a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic’s “morality police”, in Tehran, Iran September 21, 2022. Handout / WANA (West Asia News Agency)
