UNITED NATIONS: Iran yesterday rejected US criticism of its election to the United Nations’ committee on non-governmental organisations (NGOs), saying Washington’s rebuke came from “baseless accusations” and violated the spirit of cooperation needed at the world body.
US Ambassador Samantha Power on Wednesday said, “The unopposed candidacy of Iran, where authorities regularly detain human rights defenders, subjecting many to torture, abuse, and violations of due process, is a particularly troubling outcome.”
Hamid Babaei, spokesman for Iran’s UN mission in New York, vehemently rejected Power’s remarks. “Iran categorically rejects baseless accusations raised in the statement of (Power) regarding status of human rights and civil liberties in the Islamic Republic of Iran and find these assertions both unconstructive, obstructive and against the spirit of cooperation between sovereign member states,” he said.
The US rebuke follows Washington’s decision to deny entry to Tehran’s proposed new UN ambassador Hamid Abutalebi over his suspected links to students who held US embassy workers hostage for 444 days in 1979-1981, a move Iran has vowed to fight.
The committee Iran was elected to decides on which NGOs will be accredited at the United Nations. Conservative developing nations blocked accreditation of an international gay-lesbian NGO several years ago, and the issue was taken to the General Assembly, which voted to accredit the group.
Babaei said Iran had a long track record of working at the United Nations and nurtures a lively NGO community at home.
“Civil society and thousands of NGOs are actively pursuing their goals in different areas such as social, economic, environmental, political, women and human rights, etc in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” his statement said.
REUTERS
