US seeks emergency UN meeting on Iran protests - Russia reminds them about Ferguson and Occupy

RT
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 18:14 UTC

© Lucas Jackson / Reuters

St Louis County police officers hold an anti-police demonstrator in Ferguson, Missouri August 10, 2015.

The US has said it will call an emergency UNSC meeting to discuss the unrest in Iran, citing the need to support the protesters. Moscow says the move is hypocritical, given Washington's own history of cracking down on protests.

America's UN envoy, Nikki Haley, said Washington would call for an "urgent" UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Iran Monday, but there's been no word yet from the UN on such a meeting being scheduled. Kairat Umarov, Kazakhstan's envoy to the UN, who is now holding the rotating presidency of the UNSC, said Tuesday the council has not yet added Iran to its agenda and no decision has yet been taken on the issue.

Haley was emphatic in her support of Iran's anti-government protesters, praising their "great bravery" and calling on the international community to support them. "The people of Iran are crying out for freedom," Haley told journalists at a news conference. "All freedom-loving people must stand with their cause," she added, while promising to also seek an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Commission.

Comment: Haley's display (and that of all the other Western pundits and hacks echoing her words) really is shameless. The Iranians aren't crying out for (American style) "freedom and democracy". They are protesting against conditions common to both Iran and Western-style democracies (e.g. Spain), like unemployment and food prices. Many of the protesters would prefer a hardliner like Ahmedinejad. And the majority of Iranians hate America (with good reason). See:

• Information Warfare: Iranian protests used as propaganda for US Deep State
• Iranian protesters do not welcome 'Trump's support', misreads reasons for protests

Washington's latest attempt at masquerading as a global human rights defender was met with ridicule in Moscow, which reminded the US about its own approach when dealing with protests whenever they occur on American soil. "There is no doubt that the US delegation to the UN has something to tell the world," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova said on Facebook.

"Haley can, for example, share the US experience of putting down protests, tell [the Security Council] about the mass arrests and crackdown against the Occupy Wall Street movement or about the "clean-up operation" in Ferguson," she sarcastically added.

The Occupy Wall Street protests began in the world's financial capital, New York City, in September 2011. People came to Zuccotti Park located in the Wall Street financial district to protest against social and economic inequality in the US. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, the police crackdown was swift, arresting as many as 700 protesters in one day as they marched across Brooklyn Bridge on October 1. Later, it was also revealed the FBI monitored movements through its Joint Terrorism Task Force and assigned counterterrorism agents to investigate OWS, despite labelling it peaceful.

Ferguson, Missouri, witnessed massive protests in 2014 following the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man who was shot and killed by a police officer. US authorities imposed a curfew in the area while military police repeatedly dispersed the protesters using tear gas and other means. Later, the Missouri governor deployed National Guard troops to secure the area.

Comment: Russian Deputy FM Ryabkov told Sputnik:

"We do not see any UNSC role in this issue... [In Iran] there are certain domestic processes, the UNSC is a certain body, which is responsible under the UN Charter for maintaining international peace and security, Iran's internal issues have nothing to do to this UNSC function," Ryabkov said.

"Of course we cannot predict the developments of the situation as for a call of this hypothetical session, but I am sure that in contrast with this harmful and destructive US idea, we will set out our position, which is very consistent and is fully based on the adherence to the norms of international law," Ryabkov said.

Possible Sanctions

The Russian deputy foreign minister has also touched upon the issue of possible sanctions against Iran over the social unrest in the country.

"Our position is well known, unilateral sanctions, as a way to resolve problems relating to foreign policy, are unacceptable, they are illegitimate. The problem is that the oversimplification of the US foreign policy has gone too far. [The United States], in my opinion, has no other tools apart from sanctions in their arsenal of doing business with other members of the international community that are not ready to stand in line and follow the United States," Ryabkov said.

"We will counter Washington's sanctions pressuring as we used to. And our position fully applies to the situation in the US-Iranian relations. We categorically reject such tricks and insist that the threats to impose sanctions are also illegitimate," Ryabkov added.

Ryabkov also told TASS that there are additional motivations for the U.S.'s recent stance:

"The current situation, when Washington falls to temptation to use the moment to raise new issues regarding to the JCPOA, shows the deliberate attempt to undermine and shatter the international community's commitment the JCPOA," Ryabkov told TASS on Thursday. The diplomat also stressed that what is going on in the Islamic republic is a domestic issue, and urged the US to refrain from meddling.

The deputy foreign minister also reminded the US that the P5+1 initiative was no bilateral agreement, but the result of difficult and lengthy negotiations, which cannot be unilaterally amended.

"It is a destructive approach to arbitrarily snatch out of the total package only what suits the Americans and demand to change those provisions that Americans are not satisfied with for unknown reasons," Ryabkov stated. He also warned that such an approach could undermine the whole deal, which took years of hard work to finalize.

Iran's Ambassador to the UN Gholamali Khoshroo is similarly peeved:

Tehran has continued to fire back at the US stance. Khoshroo condemned the American administration's "acts of intervention in a grotesque way in Iran's internal affairs." The ambassador said that Washington had meddled in Iranian domestic affairs under the pretext of support for the rallies, "which in several instances were hijacked by infiltrators to include acts of senseless homicide."

"The current US administration has crossed every limit in flouting rules and principles of international law governing the civilized conduct of international relations," Khoshroo said in a letter to the UN, cited by Tasnim news agency on Thursday.
...
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that hostile statements on the ongoing protests in Iran by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia could lead to a war. He also urged all parties to maintain balance in relations with the Islamic Republic, while seeking ways to "increase international pressure" on it.
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Speaking to RT, some Iranians pointed to the unfair treatment of their country. Despite some praising American support, others said that demonstrations on the same issues could occur anywhere.

"In any country, people can protest against high prices. But whenever such demonstrations happen in our country, opponents of the establishment come out and support them," a woman told RT. Another local resident said that authorities' opponents use the riots "for their own purposes" each time demonstrations take place.

See also:
Denied! United Nations Security Council rebuffs absurd US request for emergency session on Iran protests