Iran accuses West of false rights gestures

TEHERAN－The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman condemned officials of some Western countries on Sunday for making "false human rights gestures" by "dividing terrorism into good and bad".

Nasser Kanaani made the remarks on his Twitter account after posting a screenshot of a Sky News report on Thursday that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to give the British police new powers to clamp down on "illegal protests".

These officials, who are self-purported human rights defenders, work for the regimes that have "a history of coups, conspiracies, interference … and waged wars that took millions of lives", Kanaani said.

"Public protests in Britain, Germany, France, Canada and Australia are bad and deserve strong responses, but riots in their target countries are good and deserve support!" he added.

In September, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in a Teheran hospital a few days after collapsing at a police station, sparking protests across Iran.

Iran has accused the US and some other Western countries of "inciting riots and supporting terrorists" in the country.

On Sunday, the Iranian foreign minister accused the US, along with some other Western countries, of "seeking to cause chaos "in Iran to force its concessions in the talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the accusation at a joint news conference with his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic following their meeting in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

"We do not let anybody incite riots and terrorism in our country," he was quoted by the Iranian Students' News Agency as saying.

Talks on the deal's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved.

Xinhua