Iran rejects UNHRC decision to probe crackdown on anti-regime protests

 The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Friday denounced the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)'s decision to open an international investigation into the crackdown on country-wide protests erupted by the death of Mahsa Amini.

In a statement, Iran's Foreign Ministry said it rejected the UNHRC's meeting and considered that the decision "does not officially recognize the mission" to carry out the probe.

The UNHRC voted on Thursday to condemn the "bloody" crackdown on protests in Iran and create an independent fact-finding mission to investigate alleged abuses, particularly those committed against women and children.

A resolution put forward by Germany and Iceland was backed by 25 countries, opposed by six, and 16 abstained.

The council had appealed to Iran's government to halt the crackdown against protesters, but Tehran's envoy at a special Human Rights Council on the country's "deteriorating" rights situation was defiant and unbowed, blasting the initiative as "politically motivated".

Khadijeh Karimi, deputy of Iran's vice president for Women and Family Affairs, criticized the "Western effort" as part of a: "Politically motivated move of Germany to distort the situation of human rights in Iran."

She added: "The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets that the Human Rights Council is abused again by some arrogant states to antagonize a sovereign UN member state that is fully committed to its obligation to promote and protect human rights."

Karimi accused Western countries of turning a blind eye to rights abuses in places like Yemen and Palestine, or against indigenous peoples in Canada — which the Canadian government has acknowledged.