TEHRAN- Saeed Khatibzadeh, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said Sunday slammed Washington for using human rights as a tool to achieve its objectives.

The United States is exploiting human rights as a weapon to achieve its interests, according to the spokesperson, who asserted that the sublime concept has been degraded to a plaything by Washington.

“Unfortunately, this approach has degraded the sublime concept of human rights to a plaything,” Khatibzadeh underscored while addressing a conference of Iranian non-governmental organizations with consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The Iranian diplomat went on to say that human rights is one of the most significant victims of international relations at this very time.

“Due to the approach adopted by the centers of power in the world, the issue of human rights has been turned into a political tool to advance those centers’ goals,” he noted.

“The United States uses human rights as a tool in its foreign policy toolbox in order to achieve its goals,” Khatibzadeh continued, slamming the U.S. for its distorted approach to human rights.

Iran has often warned the U.S. and its Western allies against using human rights as a tool to undermine independent countries.

In relevant remarks last week, the secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights Kazem Gharibabadi blasted the U.S. and Western European bloc for politicizing human rights and using it as a tool to exert pressure on non-aligned countries.

“The Western European countries and the United States have this selective approach, unfortunately,” Kazem Gharibabadi pointed out.

“So, the countries that are not allied to these states are under political pressure in international human rights mechanisms and structures because they are going to abuse human rights as a political tool to achieve their own foreign policy goals,” he underlined.

The United States has a long history of domestic and international human rights violations.

Despite major protests around the country following the deaths of African-American men George Floyd and Daunte Wright by white police officers last year, a report released in late December indicated that the number of Americans murdered in confrontations with U.S. police has not dwindled.