TEHRAN – Iran’s Foreign Ministry said a statement on Thursday suggesting that it is time for the world to hold the United States’ administration accountable for violating human rights.

Iran welcomes @UNHumanRights urgent debate on human rights violations in the US. Systemic racism, police brutality & violence against peaceful protests represent just the tip of the iceberg. It's high time 🌎 works for the US regime's human rights accountability at home & abroad.

— Iran Foreign Ministry 🇮🇷 (@IRIMFA_EN) June 18, 2020

“Iran welcomes @UNHumanRights urgent debate on human rights violations in the US. Systemic racism, police brutality & violence against peaceful protests represent just the tip of the iceberg. It’s high time world works for the US regime’s human rights accountability at home & abroad,” the ministry said in a tweet.

Participants in a debate on Wednesday at the UN Human Rights Council on systemic racism called for an independent investigation into the death of African American George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.

The council meeting began with a moment of silence for all the victims of racial injustice.  

In opening the debate, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said merely condemning expressions and acts of racism was not enough to alleviate generations of suffering resulting from racial injustice.

Speaking by teleconference from New York, she said the debate was taking place as marches for racial justice and equality take place around the world.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said on Monday that violation of the human rights in the United States is “systematic” and has become “institutionalized”.

“The United States violates human rights in areas of racism, terrorism and countries’ sovereignty, and this violation of human rights is systematic and institutionalized,” Alavi said during a meeting of the Coordination Council for Islamic Propagation.

He also said, “They [the U.S. officials] talk about economic relations, but they seek to loot. They talk about human rights, but their behavior runs contrary to this slogan.”

Late last month the Iranian Foreign Ministry said it regrets the tragic murder of Floyd, blaming the U.S. regime for deadly racial profiling against African-Americans.

“Iran regrets the tragic murder of black Americans, denounces deadly racial profiling in the United States & urges authorities to do justice for every case,” the Foreign Ministry wrote in a tweet.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi has also said that Iran hopes Washington will let the American people breathe.

“We have been witnessing cruelty and discrimination against a part of American society since the time of slavery. They are shouting against oppression and the world is hearing it,” ISNA quoted him as saying on June 9.

Protests have started across the U.S. over brutal killing of the African-American man.

Floyd died on May 25 after being pinned down by a white officer despite yelling: “I cannot breathe” under the knee of a white U.S. police officer.

Mousavi had earlier said that brutal killing of the African-American man was a harrowing demonstration of “systematic racism” exercised by the current rulers of the White House.

“Brutal killing of #GeorgeFloyd by Minneapolis’ white man in uniform in cold blood is a harrowing demonstration of systematic racism and white supremacism glorified by the current administration,” he tweeted on May 28.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on June 3 that the suffocation of the black American shows the nature of the United States.

Such crimes have frequently happened in the past, and the U.S. has done the same things in many countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other countries, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out.

Pointing to the slogan of “I cannot breathe,” which the U.S. people have been chanting in recent days, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “This is what the nations that have been the victims of United States’ oppressive usurpation want to say from the bottom of their hearts.”

NA/PA