Iran condemns U.S. "hypocritical, deviant" human rights reports

TEHRAN, April 15 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian human rights official condemned on Friday "hypocritical and deviant" annual reports by the United States on the 2021 human rights situation in other countries, particularly Iran.

In a tweet, Kazem Gharibabadi, the Judiciary chief's deputy for international affairs and secretary of the country's High Council for Human Rights, said the United States, as the main violator of human rights, is in no position to comment on the rights situation in other countries.

He made the remarks in reaction to the U.S. State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released on Tuesday.

The U.S. reports are aimed at diverting the global public opinion from Washington's flagrant human rights violations and its construction of fake models in this field, Gharibabadi noted, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency.

Voicing concerns about the human rights situation in the United States, the Iranian official said the American society in 2021 was still suffering from race discrimination and injustice, while refugees and migrants in the country were widely subject to violence and harassment.

Using coercion as well as cruel, inhuman and unilateral sanctions against some countries were the prominent features of U.S. foreign policy in the past year, Gharibabadi added.

"The U.S. government, with a history full of wars, coups, aggression, assassinations, kidnappings, economic blockades and the killing of innocent people around the world, has been the main violator of human rights and, therefore, it is in no way qualified to speak of such sublime concepts as human rights," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Thursday, also commenting on the U.S. reports.