According to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the instability in the Middle East stems from the United States backing of Israel, as he stated in an interview with CNBC TV (Iran’s foreign minister warns the U.S. not to ‘tie their destiny’ to the fate of Netanyahu).
The Islamic Republic’s chief diplomat spoke one day after the failed attempt of Senator Bernie Sanders to sabotage American aid to the Jewish State (Senate Tables Sanders’ Measure to Condition Aid to Israel on Human Rights Scrutiny).
“The full-scale cooperation of Biden and the White House with thugs like Netanyahu in Israel is the root of insecurity in the region,” Amir-Abdollahian said, offering his counsel, which sounded more like a threat, “Biden should not tie his destiny to the fate of Netanyahu.”
“We believe that any action to destabilize the region is rooted in Israel and its genocide in Gaza,” the Iranian FM said.
A REMINDER: RECENT IRANIAN ATROCITIES AS REPORTED BY THE UN
On March 20, 2023, Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran said “The most serious human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran over the past four decades” have been committed since the death in police custody of Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022.
Rehman said that the “scale and gravity” of violations committed by Iranian authorities pointed to “the possible commission of international crimes, notably the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual violence, and persecution.”
The report followed a statement by several independent UN-appointed rights experts, including Rehman, condemning the “deliberate poisoning of more than 1,200 schoolgirls in Iran’s major cities” in gas attacks.
Addressing the harsh response to the wave of protests by Iranian authorities since September 2022, the expert expressed shock at the execution of at least four individuals “following arbitrary, summary, and sham trials marked by torture allegations.” Additionally, he condemned the sentencing to death of another 17 people. The protests resulted in the death of more than 520 individuals, including 71 children, and left hundreds more injured.
Providing a detailed account of the crackdown, Rehman noted that Iranian security forces used live ammunition against unarmed protesters, leading to the death of some, including children, who were beaten to death. He highlighted that the authorities acknowledged the arrest of more than 22,000 people in an attempt to quash “all avenues of freedom of expression,” employing tactics such as Internet disruptions and social media censorship.
The tragic events unfolding since September 16, 2022, occurred amid a backdrop of “exponentially increasing” human rights violations in Iran, according to Rehman. In 2022, the country witnessed the highest number of executions in the past five years, with a notable rise in the execution of drug offenders and the continued execution of individuals sentenced to death as minors.
The expert also denounced the “disproportionate” use of the death penalty targeting individuals from ethnic and religious minorities in 2022. He pointed out that “more than half of the total number of persons killed since the start of the protests are from the Baluchi and Kurdish-populated provinces,” emphasizing that the Baha’i religious minority remained “the most severely persecuted.”
Somebody tell Bernie.
By the way, the atrocities listed here and so many more crimes of the Iranian regime did not stop the international body from appointing Iran’s ambassador last November to the UN in Geneva Ali Bahreini as chair of a two-day human rights council meeting, following a submission from the Asia-Pacific group. The United States and rights groups complained, and Washington’s representative to the 47-member council, Michèle Taylor, refused to attend the meeting, deeming the appointment as an “offense to the collective conscience of the global community.”
