Iranian parliament bans UN human rights reporter

[News_Editor]

Iranian parliament bans UN human rights reporter

2011-06-20 05:10:38 GMT+7 (ICT)

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- Iran announced on Sunday that it has decided to bar a special United Nations (UN) human rights reporter from entering the country.

The state-run Press TV reported that the Human Rights Committee of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) decided to prevent the reporter from entering Iran, arguing that the UN does not monitor human rights violations in Western countries.

"The United States, Israel and the UK are the biggest violators of human rights in the world and the United Nations Human Rights Committee should send their reporters to those countries instead of Iran," member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Karim Abedi said, adding that the UN acts 'selectively' when it comes to human rights.

Last month, Abedi announced plans by the Islamic Republic to launch an English-language news agency to report on human rights conditions in the West. The Human Rights News Agency would report on rights violation taking place in Europe and the United States, which Abedi says have been ignored by the international media.

Earlier this month, Iran's foreign ministry underlined the need for the international monitoring of human rights violations in Western countries and added that the Iranian Foreign Ministry would actively pursue the issue.

Last month, the Iranian Parliament released a list of 26 US officials wanted by Tehran for various crimes, including rights violations and acts of terror. The officials on the list include former FBI chief Thomas J. Pickard, who is wanted for human rights violations during his tenure as the CIA station chief in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003, and the former commander of the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay Geoffrey D. Miller, who is charged with the torture of inmates.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is also on the list for the 'killing of thousands of civilians' in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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