TEHRAN – An Iranian Zoroastrian clergyman has rejected claims by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that religious minorities are being suppressed in Iran, saying Zoroastrians living in Iran are able to perform their rituals freely.

“As a Zoroastrian mobad (cleric), I cry out loud that during the 40 years of the Islamic government in Iran, Zoroastrians have been able to perform their rituals freely,” Mobad Behzad Neek-Deen, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

“About 100 meters away from the fire temple of the Zoroastrians in Isfahan, there is a mosque ... such scenes are extremely rare in other countries,” he added.

MH/PA