IRI envoy slams anti-Tehran resolution

IRI Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad-Reza Sajjadi has censured the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution against the Islamic Republic. At a meeting on Thursday, the UNHRC adopted a resolution against Iran and renewed the mandate of Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, for another year. Sajjadi said on Thursday that the issue of human rights was being used as a pretext to pursue the political interests of specific countries, Mehr News Agency reported. The resolution was sponsored by Sweden and backed by the United States and the European Union. It was voted against by Russia, China, Qatar, Bangladesh, and Cuba. “The main sponsors of this draft resolution revealed their ill-intention towards our nation for the second consecutive year by persisting to abuse this august council for advancing their narrow political agenda. The [UN] Human Rights Council should not allow this political game to continue,” he said in a speech before the draft resolution was adopted. Sajjadi added that the appointment of the special rapporteur was intended “to distract the attention of the international community from the violations of human rights…in Afghanistan and Palestine” and would undermine the council’s credibility. Last week, Secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights Mohammad-Javad Larijani denounced a recent report by the rapporteur and said that he had failed to even pretend to be impartial in his account on the human rights situation in Iran. He added that Shaheed’s report was fraught with lies and fabrications, which could also easily be found in Western media.