Western countries who back Iranian anti-government protesters are guilty of double-standards, the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, IRNA reported.
The statement came in response to last Saturday’s decision by Germany to grant political asylum to 50 Iranians dissidents who fled Iran after taking part in the failed Green Revolution of 2009.
“Countries that stand for democracy and human rights should avoid adopting hypocritical policies, respect the majority opinion, and not distort the facts,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Paras said.
He also said the West’s backing of the mass unrest that characterized the Green Revolution had diminished its “honor and dignity.”
“The consequences of such events are numerous victims and destruction,” he said
“Western countries will be associated only with discrimination and double-standards,” the spokesman added.
Mass protests broke out after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 amid opposition claims of mass vote rigging. The unrest was the most serious since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and took the lives of 27 people. Some 4,000 people were imprisoned.
A subsequent crackdown on the opposition has seen an increase in applications for political asylum in the West by Iranian dissidents.
MOSCOW, July 27 (RIA Novosti)
