TEHRAN — In reaction to the adoption of an anti-Iran resolution by the United Nations General Assembly, Iran has said the resolution lacks “legal credibility”, highlighting the chief initiators’ dark history of human rights violations.

In a statement released on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denounced the resolution, which he said has been put forward by Canada and supported by the European states and the Zionist regime, as in the past couple of years.

Khatibzadeh said the resolution lacks legal credibility and deplored the stances adopted by the initiators of the resolution for instrumental use of international organizations to impose pressure on Iran, the Foreign Ministry website reported.

He said many chief initiators of the resolution have a dark record of brazen and systematic violation of human rights, particularly through military interventions in the other countries and the arms sales to dictatorial and despotic regimes.

“The resolution that was adopted at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday with the votes of less than half of the UN Member States and non-cooperation of more than 110 countries is in fact the same text that was recently ratified by the General Assembly Third Committee with the same votes and was passed at the General Assembly according to modus operandi of the United Nations,” the spokesman added.

On Wednesday, by a recorded vote of 82 in favor to 30 against, with 64 abstentions, the General Assembly adopted draft resolution II, “Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

The Assembly expressed serious concern at the alarmingly high frequency of death penalty use, and called on Iran to ensure that no one is subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

It also called on Iran to address the poor conditions of prisons, release female human rights defenders imprisoned for exercising their rights, end rights violations against persons belonging to ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, and ensure free presidential elections in 2021.

Khatibzadeh expressed his abhorrence of the deep-rooted hypocrisy of initiators of the resolution, saying they have turned a blind eye to the U.S.’s economic terrorism against the Iranian nation under the influence of U.S. bullying and have practically sunk to the level of the U.S. regime’s accomplices instead of condemning the illegal and anti-human sanctions imposed by the U.S.

He further advised Canada and the other initiators of the resolution to stop their interventionist and immoral behavior towards independent nations.

“Such unconstructive measures would not only not help the promotion of human rights at the global level, but only aggravate negative cliches and political labeling against the independent states,” he added.

“We condemn the move by the Canadian government and other initiators of the resolution, which is a blatant example of abuse of the lofty concepts and values of human rights for the advancement of short-sighted political intentions, and find it to be lacking in any legal credibility and effect,” the spokesman underlined.

Khatibzadeh also highlighted the fact that once again, as in the previous voting at the Third Committee, 114 countries out of around 190 UN Member States have refused to support the resolution, saying the move by Canada and the chief initiators of the resolution was in line with their policy of pinning the blame on others in the field of human rights.

The spokesperson emphasized that the repetition of fake and false reports from that group of countries against the Iranian people would only further discredit their human rights claims.

MH/PA