TEHRAN – Iran on Thursday reacted to an annual report on human rights in the world issued by the U.S. State Department, saying that the U.S. is not in a position to speak about human rights due to its dark record of in this regard.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh rejected the baseless claims about Iran in the annual report of the U.S. Department of State, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Khatibzadeh said releasing repetitive and unfounded reports will not give them legitimacy.

The spokesman added that it’s clear that no one can expect the U.S. government which is addicted to lying, to tell the truth and existing realities. “Therefore, the biased, politically-charged and meddlesome nature of the report is clear and obvious to all and to the Iranian nation.”

He said that the U.S. government’s history is filled with waging wars, coups, aggression, assassinations, kidnappings, economic blockades, and killings of innocents in different parts of the world.

U.S. unilateral coercive measures including illegal economic bans are a clear example of economic terrorism against the Iranians

The U.S. government is the main violator of human rights and, therefore, is in no position to speak about lofty concepts such as human rights, Khatibzadeh added.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that the U.S. sheds crocodile tears for the Iranian people at a time when its own crimes against Iranians including the downing of a passenger plane, provocation of its internal lackeys to assassinate people and officials over the past decades and all-out efforts to deprive the noble people of Iran of their basic rights remain in the memory of Iranians.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that the United States’ unilateral coercive measures including illegal economic sanctions are a clear example of economic terrorism against the Iranian people and are the main obstacle to the import of vital medicine for Iranian patients, that have themselves led to a gross violation of the rights of the Iranian people.

He described the claims of the U.S. regime as hypocritical that are aimed at achieving illegitimate political goals.

Khatibzadeh underlined that the direct order by the then U.S. president to cowardly assassinate General Qassem Soleimani who was the champion of the fight against terrorism in the Western Asian region, perfectly reveals the terrorist nature of the United States.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson added that the U.S. government is turning a blind eye to the gross and systematic violations of human rights in the country and in its vassal allies.

He also said all people have repeatedly seen how racial discrimination against minorities and African Americans are happening in the U.S. systemically and on a large scale, which in itself has led to mass protests by black people and other citizens in the country. Khatibzadeh further noted that unbridled police brutality and the murder of black citizens before the eyes of people reveal the anti-human rights approaches of the U.S. government and, more regrettably, the U.S. response to such rights abuses have been merely show actions, indifference and inattention.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said at the end that the Islamic Republic of Iran, in line with its own humanitarian laws and also its international obligations, has always tried to realize the rights of the great Iranian nation and promote real causes such as true human rights and such baseless and hypocritical statements and reports will not undermine the Iranian government and people’s will and movement down this path to build a dear and proud country in line with its own religious and national values and principles.