TEHRAN – While blaming the West for “manipulative use of human rights”, Tehran has announced it is ready to enter talks with European countries on human rights concerns only if they answer Iran’s questions, too. 

“The negotiations should be preconditioned upon a bilateral framework, not a unilateral one where only Iran is put to questions,” Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani told a forum on Wednesday to commemorate the Islamic Human Rights and Human Dignity Day.
He suggested the Iranian High Council for Human Rights and Foreign Ministry to raise the issue with Europeans.  

Iran and the West do not agree on some issues related to human rights. 

The questions Iran has are basic and in contradiction to the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10,1948 General Assembly resolution 217(III). 

“Those who prepared a draft of the universal declaration were secular liberal in orientation and to avoid possible disagreement, they put it in the guise of human dignity,” Amoli Larijani noted.  

This is while the declaration “must be drafted on the basis of philosophical, logical, and religious perspectives,” he added. 

The top judge put the West to two theoretical and on practical questions. 
“Theoretically, we have two questions regarding the basics of right. Whom does this right serve? And how do you interpret it? Practically, why do you impose your take on the whole world?” 

Larijani Amoli further rapped the West for “double standards” on the human rights, saying, “The West acts on the basis of double standards on human rights and makes manipulative use of the issue.” 

‘West’s stance on human rights is self-serving, and hypocritical’

Relevant to this, Mohammad Javad Larijani, head of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, said the West has adopted a hypocritical approach toward the human rights.

“Regarding the human rights, we believe the West’s stance is self-serving, and hypocritical,” Javad Larijani told the participants. 

Sheikh Issa Qassim and Arzu Merali win International Islamic Human Rights Award

At the end of the ceremony, winners of the International Islamic Human Rights Award 2016 were introduced. 

Bahrain’s top Shiite cleric Sheikh Issa Qassim and Arzu Merali, the co-founder of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), were jointly granted the award. 

Sheikh Issa Qassim received the award for his effective role in “peacefully defending the rights of Muslims” as well as “promoting principles of religious democracy.”

Arzu Merali also received the same title for her constant efforts to “defend Muslims’ rights” and “fight against Islamophobia.”

AK/PA