TEHRAN – A senior Iranian judicial official says the United States and certain other Western countries are abusing the issue of human rights as a “political tool” to advance their foreign policy goals, noting that the Iranian negotiators don’t allow outside issues to affect the trend of talks in Vienna.

In an interview with Tasnim published on Monday, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s human rights chief and deputy Judiciary chief for international affairs, said the West is using the issue of human rights against other countries for “political purposes” whenever it fits their interests.

For Americans and Europeans, Gharibabadi said, the pains of the people who are suffering from shortage of medicine and medical equipment due to the cowardly sanctions against Iran, or the catastrophic situation of people in Yemen and Palestine and other countries don’t fall within human rights concerns. However, human rights get special importance when the Western interests are being jeopardized, Iran’s former diplomat lamented.

The chief of Iran’s Human Rights Headquarters cited some examples of human rights violations by the United States.

“Violent and discriminatory behavior toward the blacks, open and widespread violation of refugees and immigrants, occupation of the massacre of the innocent people in other countries are only a shred of the back record of the United States in areas of human rights,” he stated.

“Anyhow, today we are facing a situation in which the issue of human rights has turned into a tool for issuing baseless resolutions against countries such as the Islamic Republic of Iran and also a ‘whip’ at the hands of the West for beating the countries independent from the West.”

He said the question is that what should be done in the face of the abuse of human rights by the West. “Should one sit idly by and look, or a strategy should be devised against human rights commotions created by the West?” 

Gharibabadi said one of the mechanisms that have been devised by the Islamic Republic of Iran is the “Human Rights Headquarters” which is tasked to direct and pursue all issues related to the issue of human rights at domestic and international level with the cooperation and coordination of all concerned bodies.

Gharibabadi, Iran’s former ambassador to international organizations including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPWC), also said the ongoing talks in Vienna intended to lift inhumane and illegal sanctions against Iran are not being affected by outside issues.

“In fact, the Iranian delegations (negotiators) don’t allow such a thing,” Gharibabadi stressed.