Iran charges the US and Europe with efforts to hide human rights violations in their own countries ahead of a review of US human rights records by the UN Human Rights Council, Press TV reported.
In less than two weeks, the Human Rights Council will, for the first time ever, assess the human rights status of the United States as part of the new Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism which will assess the human rights situations in all 192 UN member states.
"The Islamic republic of Iran, along with other countries concerned about the violation of human rights in the US and the West, will express its opinions in the meeting," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the IRIB TV network on Thursday.
"The US and [other] Western governments have adopted a 'forward escape' policy; they accuse others [of violations] in an effort to mask illegal conducts and violations of human rights in their own countries."
All sovereign nations and popular organizations should seriously address the issue of human rights violation in the West and the US in particular, he urged.
"One of the most serious cases of human rights violation and humiliation of individuals is happening in the US," Mehmanparast stressed.
The foreign ministry spokesperson pointed out that the use of violence by the US law enforcement against American citizens, critical condition of many detainees in the country, holding inmates incommunicado, and violation of minority rights are among frequent human rights abuses in the United States.
Washington's unconditional support for Israel, establishing "hideous prisons" in Iraq's Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in Cuba, invading other nations and desecrating divine religions "under the pretext of free speech" make the US the supreme violator of human rights, Mehmanparast charged.
He was in part referring to the controversial move by a Florida priest to announce "burn a Qur'an day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US. Amid mounting protests across the globe, the priest cancelled his desecration plan, though a group of extremists engaged in tearing and burning pages of Islam's holy book in front of the White House and elsewhere.
"Qur'an-burning was a major case of human rights violation and an offense to all divine religions and their followers, which took place thanks to the support and silence of US politicians," Mehmanparast concluded.