The United States has backed a report by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran that confirmed a wide array of “crimes against humanity” committed during the Iranian regime's crackdown on the 2022 protests.
In his press briefing on Thursday, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller highlighted the “extremely concerning human rights abuses” that the reports documented, including killings, imprisonment, torture, and sexual violence.
“We strongly support the resolution under consideration at the UN Human Rights Council that renews mandate – renews mandates for the fact-finding mission and the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran for another year,” Miller added.
Tehran has dismissed the report, reiterating that it does not recognize the UN group. The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) was established by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in November 2022, two months after the Woman, Life, Freedom protests swept Iran in response to the death in morality-police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Miller further condemned the “illegitimate activities by the Iranian Government,” noting that the Biden administration has imposed sanctions on more than 500 Iranian entities.
However, he defended a recent waiver signed by the White House that will allow Iran to continue selling electricity to Iraq, emphasizing that no money is permitted to enter Iran under the terms of this waiver. “All of these funds are held in restricted accounts and they can only be used for transactions for the purchase of food, medicine, medical devices, agricultural products, and other non-sanctionable transactions.”
He also reiterated that Iran is always going to fund terrorism and it is always going to fund destabilizing activities. “We have held Iran accountable for its support of terrorism and its funding of dangerous proxy groups around the region, and we’ll continue to do so.”
