UN Watch calls on UN chief to rescind Iran foreign minister invite

Geneva-based rights group UN Watch said it has called on UN Secretary-General António Guterres to rescind an invitation for Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to address the opening session of the UN Human Rights Council and to release a reported congratulatory message sent to Tehran marking the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution.

The group said it sent a formal letter urging Guterres to withdraw Araghchi’s invitation to speak at the council’s annual opening in Geneva on February 23.

It also called on the UN chief to publish the full text of a message Iranian state media reported he sent to President Masoud Pezeshkian congratulating Iran on the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

“It is an outrage that the UN Human Rights Council would provide a platform to Abbas Araghchi,” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said, accusing Iranian authorities of “mass killings, torture, executions, and systematic oppression.”