Iran Rejects UN Investigation into Repression of Protests

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani (AFP)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani (AFP)
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Iran Rejects UN Investigation into Repression of Protests

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani (AFP)
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani (AFP)

Iran rejected cooperation with the newly-appointed independent UN committee to investigate the country's repression and crackdown on anti-government protests.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that Iran would not cooperate with the political committee set up by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

He stressed that the hasty use of human rights mechanisms and adopting "political and instrumental" approaches toward such issues were "rejected" and failed to contribute to the human rights concept.

Kanaani indicated that Tehran "strongly protested against the interventionist and baseless statements of the German authorities."

The 47 member states of the UNHRC decided during an urgent meeting held at the initiative of Germany and Iceland to appoint a team of investigators to shed light on human rights violations during the protests crackdown in Iran.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk demanded Iran end its "excessive" use of force to quell the protests that erupted after the death of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, while in the custody of the morality police.

In response to the UN move, Iran summoned the German ambassador to protest "interventionist" remarks by German officials and Berlin's key role in holding a UNHRC special session on Iran.

The official IRNA news agency reported that the German ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry after Berlin's initiative to hold the special meeting.

Kanaani said that Iran has evidence of the involvement of Western countries in the protests sweeping the nation.

He added: "We have specific information proving that the US, Western countries, and some US allies have had a role in the protests."

Iran did not announce an official death toll of the protesters.

However, Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that about 50 policemen were killed in the protests since September, in the first official death toll, without disclosing whether this number includes fatalities among the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or not.

Mahabad MP Jalal Mahmoudzadeh said earlier that 105 people were killed during the crackdown launched by the authorities to quell the protests.



Iran Says It Obtained Sensitive Israeli Nuclear Documents

 People walk past a state-sponsored anti-US mural painted on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP)
People walk past a state-sponsored anti-US mural painted on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Iran Says It Obtained Sensitive Israeli Nuclear Documents

 People walk past a state-sponsored anti-US mural painted on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP)
People walk past a state-sponsored anti-US mural painted on the wall of the former US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP)

Iranian intelligence agencies have obtained a large trove of sensitive Israeli documents, some related to the nuclear plans and facilities of Tehran's arch enemy, Iran's state media reported on Saturday.

There was no immediate official comment from Israel and it was not clear whether the report was linked to a reported hacking of an Israeli nuclear research center last year that Tehran is choosing to divulge now amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program.

"Although the operation to obtain the documents was carried out some time ago, the sheer volume of materials and the need to transport them safely into Iran necessitated a news blackout to ensure they reached the designated protected locations," state-run PressTV reported, quoting unnamed sources.

"(Sources familiar with the matter) also noted that the abundance of documents is so vast that reviewing them, along with viewing images and videos, has consumed a significant amount of time," PressTV added, without giving details of the documents.

In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli agents had seized a huge "archive" of Iranian documents showing Tehran had done more nuclear work than previously known.

USPresident Donald Trump has threatened Iran with bombing if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program. But Trump in April reportedly blocked a planned Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was "100%" against the country's interests, rejecting a central US demand in talks to resolve a decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.