Iran Says It Is Ready for Cooperation on Human Rights Issues
Iran, criticized in a U.N. report for executing dissidents, said it is ready to cooperate with international bodies on human rights issues, provided that the issues are raised in a “principled” manner.
The statement was made Wednesday by the Supreme Court chief justice, the Ayatollah Abdulkarim Moussavi Ardabili, and carried by the Iranian news agency IRNA. It did not elaborate on what he meant by “principled.”
IRNA, monitored in Nicosia, said Ardabili was speaking during a meeting at which Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Mahallati, briefed him on a U.N. report critical of Iran’s human rights record.
The report, issued in November, said the number of executions of Iranian dissidents increased in the three months to September and spoke of repeated allegations of torture and ill treatment of prisoners. Tehran dismissed the report as biased and influenced by the Moujahedeen, the main Iranian opposition group, based in Iraq.
On Tuesday, the Moujahedeen listed 1,107 prisoners it said were among 12,000 people executed in Iran over the past five months.
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