TEHRAN - The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday stressed that the U.S. has a dark history of supporting systems based on institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination, including South Africa’s apartheid regime and the Tel Aviv regime.

Nasser Kanaani said U.S. officials are not in a position to support human rights or democracy.

“There was a time the US was backing the apartheid regime in South Africa, the CIA helped it arrest (Nelson) Mandela,” Kanaani tweeted on Sunday.

“Today, it is the strategic ally & supporter of the apartheid Zionist regime. The US does not deserve to defend human rights & democracy. It does not believe in them at all,” the Iranian spokesman added.