The foreign ministry on Sunday dismissed a recent statement by the US Department of State about the judiciary’s measures and the detention of some political figures as a blatant example of interference in Iran’s internal affairs, saying the statement goes against the US government’s commitments explicitly set out in the Algiers Accords.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham said it would be better if US officials directed their attention to the alarming reports by independent institutions about the violation of civil rights in the United States and took the measures necessary to prevent the occurrence of incidents such as the recent shooting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which led to the deaths of three US Muslim students, instead of giving “irrelevant remarks and advice” to other countries, IRNA reported.
The Algiers Accords were a set of agreements between Iran and the US to resolve the dispute over the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 and the hostage-taking of fifty-two American diplomats and citizens who were held for 444 days. The accords were brokered by the Algerian government and signed in Algiers on January 19, 1981. Under the deal, the US is committed not to intervene politically or militarily in Iranian internal affairs.
In a press statement released on Saturday, the US State Department said, “Four years ago today, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran placed former senior Iranian officials and 2009 presidential election candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, as well as Mousavi’s wife, women’s rights advocate Zahra Rahnavard, under house arrest without formally charging them with any crime. We join the international community in condemning their continued detention and the (alleged) harassment of their family members, and in calling for their immediate release.”
