Iran rips Europe for abusing Muslim minorities' rights

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned on Thursday British ambassador to Tehran Sir Richard Dalton to protest what it called human rights abuses in the United Kingdom and the European Union, which is under the rotating presidency of London. READ MORE

The tit-for-tat action comes a day after the British embassy in Tehran issued a statement on behalf of the EU criticising violations of freedom of speech in Iran and calling on Tehran to adhere to its international obligations and commitments to human rights. The EU statement said that the Islamic Republic had violated “rights of freedom of expression and freedom of association”.

The semi-official Mehr news agency, run by the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported Thursday night, however, that Ebrahim Rahimpoor, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s director general for Western Europe affairs, had summoned Dalton to register Iran’s protest at the “violation of the rights of minorities, in particular Muslims, in Britain and other EU states, especially the search of Muslims’ homes and mosques and the arrest and abuse of Muslims, as well as the destruction of Muslim graves, the body-searching of Muslims in public places, and insulting Islamic sanctities in certain European countries”.

The Iranian official also alleged that European governments “bar Muslims from carrying out their religious rites and have put many Muslims in jail”.

The British ambassador reportedly got an earful about attempts by the British government to “adopt a bill to arrest people, in particular Muslims, on the pretext of fighting against terrorism”.

The Foreign Ministry official lambasted the EU statement issued on Monday against Iran’s rights abuses and dismissed it as Britain’s bid to cover up human rights abuses at home and the suppression of the Iraqi people by British troops.

The Iranians responded as expected, but is extremly vulnerable on this issue as human rights is not a priority of Ahmandinejad's administration and the people of Iran know this.