Robert Malley, the United States Special Representative for Iran
The US special envoy for Iran. Rob Malley, praised the efforts of UN experts to draw attention to the continuing crackdown on civil society and popular protests in Iran.
In a tweet on Friday, Malley applauded “the work of UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, in calling attention to the continued crackdown against civil society in Iran.”
During the past few days, the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres as well as a group of UN human rights experts have expressed serious concerns about the violent clampdown by the Islamic Republic.
Guterres submitted an interim report to the Human Rights Council depicting the grim human rights situation in Iran on Thursday, a day after rights experts issued a statement urging those responsible for using excessive force to be held to account through comprehensive and independent investigations.
The UN chief urged the Iranian government to abolish the death penalty, release all persons detained arbitrarily immediately, and set up investigations into the use of excessive and lethal force during protests.
The UN human rights experts said, “We are alarmed at the recent escalation of allegedly arbitrary arrests of teachers, labor rights defenders and union leaders, lawyers, human rights defenders and other civil society actors.”
On Thursday, the US State Department also hailed the UN experts, and said their concerns are "certainly the concern of ours,” adding, “This is why we condemned the use of violence against these peaceful protesters. We made the point that we support the right of these protesters to peacefully exercise their fundamental freedoms."