BICOM

Foreign Secretary William Hague said that Britain would continue to stand up for human rights in Iran in a speech at The Times’ ‘Imprisoned in Iran’ event, and would push at next week’s UN General Assembly meeting for a resolution condemning human rights violations in Iran. Hague said that the regime had refused to respond to its people’s demands for greater freedom, particularly in the crackdown on the 2009 pro-democracy protests, which was isolating the country and preventing it enjoying normal relations with the rest of the world. “While some governments across the region are waking up to this truth, Iran is moving in the opposite direction. The actions of the Iranian regime are holding Iran back, isolating its people and suffocating their immense potential, and preventing Iran from enjoying normal and productive relations with the outside world,” Hague said. 

The foreign minister was speaking at an event last night sponsored by The Times to highlight the plight of opposition figures, activists, lawyers and journalists imprisoned in Iran. Hague accused the regime in Tehran of “breathtaking hypocrisy” in claiming to support popular revolutions elsewhere in the Muslim world while suppressing protests at home. He added that human rights sanctions on Tehran would be tightened if the regime fails to improve its record. “This month I will attend the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly. There we will work for a strong resolution condemning human rights abuses in Iran,” Hague said.  He also indicated that the issue would not have to be dealt with by a UN resolution if Iran was willing to discuss the problem openly, which thus far it has not permitted. “We are ready to engage in meaningful and substantive discussion with the Iranian authorities on human rights issues at any time, which they are currently completely unwilling to do,” Hague stated.

Meanwhile, Iran has told the EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, that it is ready to hold fresh nuclear talks, but won’t back down on its “rights” in its nuclear row with the West. The letter from Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili is dated 6 September and was obtained by Reuters yesterday. It seems unlikely, however, to be welcomed by Western powers as signaling a substantive step forward in Iran’s willingness to discuss its nuclear programme. Nevertheless, a spokesman for Ashton said that Jalili’s letter would be studied “carefully.”