AhlulBayt News Agency - “I suggest that the (Judiciary’s) Human Rights Council, the Foreign Ministry and the Supreme National Security Council pave the way for talks with European countries (on human rights),” Ayatollah Amoli Larijani said in an address to a cultural ceremony in Tehran on Wednesday.
He underlined that the US must be excluded from any such discussions because “Americans are only after deception.”
"They (the Americans) showed in the nuclear deal (between Iran and the world powers) that they are cunning and as the Leader (Ayatollah Khamenei) said we will not have other deals (with the US) like the nuclear deal and other negotiations," he added.
Iran believes that the US which has a long record of violating human rights is not competent to judge other countries' human rights situation.
In November, 2010, the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a report on the violation of human rights by the US inside and outside its borders, and urged Washington to sign the international conventions which prohibit such crimes.
It was stressed in the Foreign Ministry report that the United States, as a self-proclaimed standard bearer of defense for human rights in the world, has despite the international community and the UN demand, and even despite President Barack Obama's promise, still not shut down the Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib horrendous prisons.
The top official also stressed that the primary condition for holding such talks should be equal chances for each side to question the other.
“We also have things to say about human rights in Europe. We have questions and views about Europe’s approach toward humans, Islamophobia in Europe, and France’s ban on hijab,” he stressed.
It is surprising that prohibition of hijab is described as being in conformity with human rights, but any comment about the Holocaust would entail imprisonment, the top official pointed out.
Iran will approve of discussing human rights with Europeans if they agree that the debate would be reciprocal and they would be challenged as well, Ayatollah Amoli Larijani went on to say.
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