Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the United States is in no position to question the human rights record of other countries and take hostile, unilateral actions based on false allegations.
Bahram Qasemi was responding to recent US sanctions imposed on Tehran Prisons Organization and Sohrab Soleimani, the brother of the commander of Qods Force of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, over alleged human rights abuses in Iran.
“Imposing unilateral sanctions on persons and entities of independent countries based on unfounded claims of human rights violations is part of recurring moves meant to serve the US government’s political objectives. This is a breach of basic principles of international law and human rights, and illegitimate and illegal,” Qasemi was quoted as saying by IRNA on Friday.
“No international body has given the US administration the authority to review and assess the human rights situations in other countries [on its own] and dictate its will to them.”
The US Treasury Department announced the new sanctions in a statement on Thursday.
It claims that the prison organization is responsible for, or complicit in, the detention of prisoners of conscience and their mistreatment, charges that the Islamic Republic has consistently denied.
“The sanctions against human rights abusers in Iran’s prisons come at a time when Iran [allegedly] continues to unjustly detain ... various foreigners, including US citizens,” White House Spokesman Sean Spicer told a press briefing.
Soleimani is the younger brother of Major General Qasem Soleimani who leads the powerful Qods force and advises Iraq’s Shia fighters in the war against the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group.
Qasem Soleimani had previously been designated and become subject to US sanctions on terrorism allegations. The Qods Force was sanctioned in 2007.
US President Donald Trump has promised a tougher line on Iran than his predecessor Barack Obama who negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran to settle a more than a decade-old dispute over Tehran’s nuclear activities.
Since taking office in January, Trump has added dozens of individuals and a few entities linked with IRGC and Iran’s missile program to the US sanctions list.
