Iran calls for UN nonselective announcement of Fakhrizadeh assassination as "terrorist act"

Tehran, Dec 4, IRNA - Secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights Ali Bagheri Kani called on the United Nations officials to "at least for a single time" deal with the issue of terrorism in Iran the way they do in cases of France and Austria and announce the assassination of the Iranian scientist and nuclear official Mohsen Fakhrizadeh as "an act of terrorism". In separate letters to the UN Secretary-General and chief of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), he called on them to condemn the assassination of Fakhrizadeh in clear terms as a terrorist act. Elaborating on assassination of Fakhrizadeh who was a prominent and distinguished scientist active in Iran's nuclear and defense industries, he said that "inaction and passivity in face of such criminal act will only give rise to speculations about efforts to legitimize the assassination, as well as extremism and terrorism and will also place the international responsibility for it on the United Nations". The Iranian official further pointed to the cases where the UN chief adopted vivid and transparent stances towards terrorist operations in other countries like in Austria and France and asked him, as the most senior official in the international body, to codemn it as an act of terrorism in a nonselective manner. He also highlighted the importance of coopration among world countries to serve justice in cases of terrorist actions and urged the two UN officials to rise awareness in the General Asembly and Security Council towards this particular case of state terrorism which jeopardizes international peace and security. Stressing that "state terrorism" acts as a tool in the hands of big powers to advance their own illegitimate and illegal policies, he condemned politicized, discriminatory and double-standard treatment of this evil phenomenon by the western countries. Fakhrizadeh was assassinated on November 27 when a car bomb exploded near his vehicle and a number of terrorists opened fire on him afterwards leading to his martydom, according to Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier-General Amir Hatami.