Politics

Iran rejects UN-approved fact-finding mission to probe rights violations

Tehran, Nov 25 (EFE).- Iran rejected a United Nations-approved fact-finding mission on Friday to examine alleged human rights breaches in the Islamic republic following protests sparked by the death in detention of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in Tehran on Sep.16.

The Iranian foreign ministry said it “considers the creation of any new mechanism for probing issues of the past two months as unnecessary and a violation of the country’s national sovereignty and will not recognize the assigned mission.”

The ministry regretted that the UN Human Rights Council had “once again been abused to secure the short-term interests of a few Western countries.”

The reaction came hours after the rights body approved Thursday the independent mission to collect and analyze evidence of human rights violations during the protests, causing more than 300 deaths -among them 40 children.

The resolution got 25 votes in favor, 16 abstentions, and six against it.

China, which voted against the resolution, unsuccessfully tried to remove from the resolution text that alluded to the creation of the fact-finding mission.

Iran condemned and rejected the resolution and defended its action in the face of the mobilizations calling for the end of the Islamic republic.

“The security forces exercised maximum restraint with the rioters and dozens of police officials and security guards were martyred and several thousands of these forces were injured,” the statement said.

It alleged that some protesters resorted to violent behavior amid “foreign organized provocations and interventions in the last two months.”

Iran said Germany, one of the sponsors, had made “a historical mistake which stemmed from multidimensional political goals.”

“The German government and some Western governments participated in proposing this resolution, based on wrong calculations and under the pressure of certain political lobbies and false news of certain anti-Iranian media,” said the statement.

“They have made a strategic mistake and only time will tell how this political short-sightedness will backfire to them.”

The protests began with the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish girl, but have evolved into demands calling for the end of the Islamic republic founded by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

The Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights alleges that a harsh police crackdown on the protests has killed at least 342 people.

In addition, the authorities have arrested more than 15,000 people.

So far, six of the defendants have got death sentences.

The government has accused the United States, Israel, and European countries of provoking an Iranian civil war. EFE

jlr/ssk

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