TEHRAN- Iran has denounced the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize being given to an Iranian woman who has been found guilty of repeatedly breaking laws as a “spiteful and politically motivated” action.

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said in a statement on Friday that the political action taken by the Nobel Committee was consistent with “interventionist and anti-Iran policies of some European countries.”

The decision of the committee, he continued, was another link in the chain of the West’s pressure against Iran and would only serve to strengthen the Iranian people’s resolve to follow an independent course of action.

The awarding of the prize to Mohammadi, according to Kanaani, was a “disappointing deviation from its initial objectives.”

Additionally, he attacked the Nobel Committee for making “incorrect and false claims” about what happened in Iran, which revealed “some European governments’ approach to fabricate information and produce confusing and deviant narratives about internal developments in Iran.”

Narges Mohammadi, 51, received the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in Oslo in a political gesture. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that she has been battling “against the oppression of women” in Iran and to “promote human rights and freedom for all.”

Mohammadi has spent a large portion of her adult life in and out of jail, and she is now incarcerated in Tehran’s Evin prison.

In 2016, a court of appeals in Iran upheld Mohammadi’s 16-year sentence for conspiring to act against national security, spreading false information against the government, and founding and leading an unlawful association.

She was freed in 2020 but returned to jail in 2021 on charges that she had disseminated false information about the Islamic establishment.

According to Kanaani, as one of the founding members of the United Nations, Iran has always prioritized the objective of fulfilling peace at regional and global levels and has always worked to foster the culture of peace.

However, he noted, Iran never wants peace and its realization to be abused.

He emphasized Iran’s goal of establishing global peace and justice via efficient and friendly international cooperation and peaceful cohabitation.

The spokesman asked the committee to avoid assisting in the implementation of some Western nations’ false policies and instead give the Nobel Peace Prize to persons or organizations that “sincerely seek to promote the culture of peace and justice in the world.”