Zarif Criticizes Appointment of Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Iran

Iran's Foreign Minister criticized the behavior of Western countries towards the Islamic Republic, stating that Iran is the "only country in the region" where elections are held and at the same time is the "only country in the region" that has a special rapporteur on human rights assigned to it. Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was visiting Australia, accused Western countries of pursuing their "political goals" by raising the issue of human rights violations by the Islamic Republic and imposing the special rapporteur on Iran and the United Nations. In response to a question about the return of Iranian asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected in Australia, he stated, "We did not force these individuals out of Iran." According to Zarif, these individuals have been "misled by propaganda" that claims if they "assert they are victims of human rights violations in Iran, they will be welcomed, but they are not victims of human rights violations." Previously, several Australian media outlets reported that an agreement regarding the return of Iranian asylum seekers would be signed during Zarif's visit to the country. However, Abdolhossein Vahaji, Iran's ambassador to Australia, denied these reports. In this interview, Zarif raised the question, without naming it, of why Australia does not support a draft human rights resolution against countries with worse human rights records than Iran and "that do not even have an elected official." Iranian officials typically pose this question in response to Western criticism of human rights conditions in Iran, asking why Western countries do not criticize human rights conditions in countries like Saudi Arabia. Iranian officials have also repeatedly accused Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, of preparing his reports with "political" motives. Zarif further emphasized that Iran is the "only country in the region" where elections are held and also the "only country in the region" that has a special rapporteur on human rights assigned to it. Regarding the widespread disqualification of candidates in the elections on March 7, he stated that the people of Iran have "sufficient options to consider it a competitive election" and voted for the candidates they preferred. Zarif's statements about the conduct of elections in Iran come at a time when some critics of the Islamic Republic describe elections in some regional countries as freer than those in Iran. For instance, Mostafa Tajzadeh, a jailed member of the Participation Front, wrote in a note from solitary confinement in Evin Prison that the freedom of elections in countries like Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Malaysia, Tunisia, Afghanistan, and Palestine "is not comparable to that of the Islamic Republic." According to Tajzadeh, in these countries, "Muslims and Marxists, liberals and socialists, veiled and unveiled, men and women are nominated and compete with each other using written, audio-visual, and virtual media." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, stated on Wednesday, January 30, that institutions like the Guardian Council exist everywhere in the world to approve candidates and that "nowhere in the world is someone who does not accept the system allowed into decision-making centers." In the parliamentary elections, 49 percent of registrants were disqualified, which, according to reports, is the highest percentage of disqualifications in this parliamentary election cycle. Nevertheless, groups supporting President Hassan Rouhani and reformists participated in the elections and were able to completely defeat conservatives in Tehran. According to Hussein Marashi, spokesman for the Executives of Construction Party, of the 218 candidates who advanced to the parliament in the first round, 124, or 57 percent, are from the coalition of reformists and government supporters, 71 seats are held by conservatives, and 23 are independent.