TEHRAN – A senior Iranian diplomat has responded to Israeli accusations against Iran by describing them as “baseless.”

Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, Iran’s permanent ambassador to the UN office in Geneva, called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to avoid politicization after Israel used the platform to level human rights accusations against Iran. 

Addressing the 46th regular session of the Human Rights Council on Friday, Baghaei Hamaneh said the regime occupying Jerusalem al-Quds has no right to comment on the noble issue of human rights in Iran, according to Press TV.

The remarks came after the Israeli mission in Geneva tweeted, “Today, during the Item 4 General Debate, where HRC46 discusses situations which require its attention, we repeated our call for @UN_HRC to focus on Iran.”

The Iranian ambassador pointed out that the Israeli regime is best described under the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted on November 10, 1975. In Resolution 3379, Israel was declared a racist regime.

According to Baghaei Hamaneh, the rule of law makes up the basis for promoting human rights and protecting the foundations of freedom.

The Iranian envoy also expressed regret that some governments focus on weakening the rule of law in developing countries by targeting their judicial systems under the pretext of defending human rights.

No country or group of states should consider that they have the right to dictate their priorities and ideals to others, the Iranian envoy said, stressing that the world’s countries can freely choose their governments as well as judicial, legal and economic systems according to the principle of independent action.

He further called on the UN Human Rights Council to distance itself from politicization, double standards and stereotypes.

Baghaei Hamaneh also criticized Canada, Australia, Britain, Denmark, the U.S., France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Sweden for accusing others of rights violations while pretending as if no one was aware of their own contradictory performance both inside and outside their countries.

These states, he added, are accused of widespread human rights violations across the world through exporting weapons to aggressor countries and adopting unilateral policies towards developing countries.

Tensions have been on the rise between Iran and Israel over the past years. The Wall Street Journal has recently reported that Israel has targeted at least 12 vessels linked to Iran since 2019. According to the American newspaper, these ships were mostly carrying Iranian oil.

Iran has not reacted to this allegation.

On Friday, Iran announced that an Iranian merchant ship was targeted with an “explosive object” in the Mediterranean.

Ali Ghiasian, a spokesman for the Shipping Company of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said in an exclusive interview with Nournews that “part of the ship's hull was damaged after an explosive device hit the Iranian container ship Shahrekord on Wednesday, March 11, in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea.”

“This vessel, which belongs to the Container Transportation of Iran's shipping company, was on its way from Iran to Europe,” the Iranian official continued. 

SM/PA