Mohsen Hashemi: Global Consensus Against Islamic Republic is Unprecedented
The former head of Tehran’s City Council warned in an interview with a Tehran-based newspaper that global consensus, including consensus among governments and global public opinion, against the Islamic Republic is unprecedented.
Mohsen Hashemi told the Tuesday, December 4 edition of the Islamic Republic newspaper: “The consensus that has currently formed against the Islamic Republic in the world has no precedent not only for Iran, but even for other countries in the world.”
He emphasized that “fifteen years of effective sanctions have weakened the country’s infrastructure and reduced national income.”
Since nationwide protests began in Iran on September 16 this year in response to the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police, major cities around the world have witnessed extensive rallies and demonstrations in support of the Iranian people’s protest movement against the Islamic Republic system.
Many world leaders, international organizations and human rights groups have strongly condemned the suppression and killing of protesters by the Islamic Republic’s security forces, and the European Union, United States, and Canada have imposed extensive sanctions against those responsible for human rights violations in Iran.
Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish a fact-finding committee to document human rights violations during Iran’s nationwide protests following Mahsa Amini’s death. On the other hand, the UN Economic and Social Council on December 14 removed the Islamic Republic from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Mohsen Hashemi, in another part of his remarks, emphasized that the establishment of a fact-finding committee on human rights violations in Iran by the UN Human Rights Council “had not been done even in the case of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yugoslavia, and African countries that witnessed the massacre of tens of thousands of people.”
Regarding global public opinion consensus against the Islamic Republic, he said: “Today there is no serious opposition in Western public opinion to intervention in Iran.”
The UN Human Rights Council, in its thirty-fifth special session on December 2, voted in favor of establishing a fact-finding committee to conduct investigations into reports of “human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran in connection with protests that began after September 15.”
This is the first time such a committee has been formed to investigate human rights violations in Iran. The Council appointed three female legal experts as members of this committee on December 20.
The task of the fact-finding committee members is to document the suppression of recent months of protests in Iran, gather evidence regarding human rights violations with the aim of identifying responsible officials and pursuing legal proceedings against them.
Islamic Republic officials have described the formation of this committee as a “hostile political move.”
Source: Radio Farda
