TEHRAN – A group of 225 Iranian lawmakers on Sunday strongly condemned a resolution recently adopted by the European Parliament on the alleged human rights violations in Iran.

“In a meddlesome and ridiculous move, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution to impose sanctions on the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran for allegedly violating human rights. We, the representatives of the proud and brave nation of the Islamic Iran, condemn this move of the European Parliament,” the lawmakers said in a statement.

The statement said the European Parliament, which today adopts a resolution in protest over the execution of criminals acting against Iran’s national security, is the same institution that refrained from commenting on the cowardly assassination of Iran’s innocent scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

It also accused the European Parliament of supporting terrorist groups including the cultish Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which has the blood of 17,000 Iranian citizens on its hands.

“People, who deliberately prevent innocent and sick Iranian children from accessing medicine and are the killers of dozens of sick Iranian children, are violating the right to life, the right to health, the right to employment, the right to education and the right to development by imposing illegal and oppressive sanctions on the Iranian people,” the statement noted, adding that the Europeans rudely and arrogantly grant citizenship to criminal spies, who have played an effective role in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, while in prison, and then use these citizenships to blackmail Iran.

The Iranian lawmakers pointed out, “Instead of supporting criminals, members of the European Parliament should abandon the shameless support of Western countries for Zionists, terrorists, and child-killing dictators, and abandon double standards.”

The statement came after the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on “all EU member states to jointly issue public statements and undertake diplomatic initiatives to monitor unfair trials and visit prisons where human rights defenders and other prisoners of conscience, including EU nationals, are being detained in Iran.”

The resolutions also demanded “targeted EU measures against Iranian officials who have committed serious human rights violations.”

The European Parliament’s resolution came amid heightened tensions between Iran and Europe over a variety of issues ranging from the 2015 nuclear deal to Europe’s renewed calls for new talks over regional issues.

In the latest European escalation against Iran, a number of UK lawmakers urged Britain on Wednesday to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, a move that elicited criticism from Iran.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the UK, said the report of some lawmakers was meant to advocate regime change in Iran.

“We condemn in its strongest term a report issued on developments regarding Iran by a few UK MPs. This report is not more than advocating regime change through maximum pressure policy against Iran, while the main architect of this failed policy is driven out of the White House,” Baeidinejad said in a tweet on December 19.

Baiedidnejad also said that the Iranian embassy in London has sent a letter of protest to the UK Foreign Office regarding the lawmakers’ report on the IRGC.

PA/PA