The U.S. State Department recently took aim at the Islamic Republic for murdering in cold blood anti-regime protesters.
By TPS
In its recently released “Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” the U.S. State Department trained a spotlight on the Iranian government’s killing of around 1,500 people and detention of over 8,600 others, steps taken in response to anti-government protests in November 2019.
In a speech presenting the new report, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that writing the report was “a broad and challenging mission, but human rights are at the core of what we believe as Americans, and so we have to execute this well.”
Highlighting abuses in China, Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran, Pompeo told the story of a 27-year-old Iranian engineer who was fatally shot in the head at an anti-government protest. Pompeo addressed the “great Iranian [people],” saying he wanted them to know that “America remembers those lost and stands for their freedom.”
“Experience teaches that government officials who oppress, abuse, and tolerate the denial of the human rights of their own people are also responsible for creating social environments that are ripe for both economic and humanitarian crises, and that encourage corruption, violent conflict, and terrorism,” Pompeo added.
Iran
The US State Department reported that there was “no indication government entities were pursuing independent or impartial investigations into protester deaths,” which numbered around 1,500 in Iran
Human rights abuses in Iran included executions without fair trial and for crimes “not meeting the international legal standard of ‘most serious crimes,'” including minors put to death.
Aside from abuses including killings, forced disappearances, torture, and systematic imprisonment, Iran is accused of holding hundreds of political prisoners in “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.”
The recruitment of child soldiers for the war in Syria, human trafficking and the violent targeting of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities were reported among dozens of additional abuses.
The Iranian government also reportedly “contributed to human rights abuses in Syria” by supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Hezbollah terror group. Similar situations occurred in arenas including Yemen and Saudi Arabia through the support of Houthi rebels.