'Iran to expose US crimes'

An Iranian lawmaker says the decision of the country's Majlis (parliament) to impose sanctions on 26 US officials over human rights violations will help expose US crimes.


“The US claims to be an advocate of human rights and accuses Iran of human rights violations, but a cursory glance at the deeds of most of American officials shows us numerous crimes against humanity and blatant instances of the violation of human rights committed by them,” IRNA quoted Iranian lawmaker Hossein Sobhani-Nia as saying on Thursday.

“US officials have taken every opportunity since the [victory of] the Islamic Revolution, in line with their hostile approach, to organize anti-revolutionary and anti-Islamic Republic movements,” the vice president of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran's Majlis said.

“America is making attempts to push baseless accusations of human rights violations against the Islamic Republic at any opportunity and under any false pretext, and the parliamentarians have thus concluded that it is necessary to make an effort for the exposition of human rights violations [committed] by the US,” the lawmaker pointed out.

Sobhani-Nia noted that initial investigations revealed 26 instances of flagrant violation of human rights by US officials.

"Those involved were sanctioned by Iran as violators of human rights,” he said.

These are only a few instances of the many US violations of human rights and the first step by the Islamic Republic in publicizing the US crimes against humanity, the parliamentarian stressed, vowing more revelations were to be made.

The single-urgency motion of sanctioning 26 US officials, signed by more than 200 representatives, was presented to the Majlis Presiding Board on Wednesday.

Some of the atrocities committed by US officials as referenced by the motion include cases of human rights violation, construction and running of dreadful secret prisons, interference in the domestic affairs of regional countries and the killing of civilians.

In May, Amnesty International (AI) slammed the United States for its indefinite detentions in Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, as well as its flawed capital punishment system.

In October 2010, the United Nations Human Rights Council also released a report expressing serious concerns about human rights abuse in the US.