Secretary of Iran's Human Rights Council Mohammad Javad Larijani rapped the West's double-standard policies and stances on human rights issues in Iran, asking the West how come it is concerned about the Baha'i minority sect in Iran but ignores the vitally negative impacts of its unfair sanctions on the majority of Iranians.

"I am astounded and have always been asking this question from myself why these (western) countries are not concerned about the majority of Iranians who are under their harshest inhumane sanctions to the same extent that they are concerned about this minority sect (Baha'ism)," Larijani said on Saturday.

He added that Iranian university students have been deprived of their right to continue their studies in the same countries that claim to be supporters of Baha'ism and human rights for no good reason.

"These countries are constantly referring to this sect as a religious minority and they are trying to inspire that the Baha'is are living under difficult conditions while the Islamic Republic of Iran treats Baha'is like other citizens and they enjoy citizens rights," the secretary of Iran's Human Rights Council said.

Although members of the Baha’i sect have admitted to their crimes in various cases, the West, specially the United States, claims that Iran has violated their human rights due to its attempts to stop the illegal activities of the cult.

"We (as the state) offer a variety of services to the Baha’i sect in Iran and respect them as human beings, but not as insiders, spies, or a political grouplet supported by Britain and Israel to cause disturbance in Iran," Iran's former Prosecutor General Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi said in 2009.

According to Dorri-Najafabadi, there is irrefutable evidence that many adherents of the Baha’i sect are in close contact with the enemies of the Iranian nation and have strong links to the Zionist regime.

"We have always showed great kindness to the Baha’i citizens in Iran. We just oppose such relations," Dorri-Najafabadi explained.
 

News ID 187318