Some European states don't qualify to advise others

The Foreign Ministry's spokesman Nasser Kan'ani made the remarks on Tuesday after the EU council imposed the restrictive measures on 32 Iranian individuals and two entities over what the bloc called Tehran's crackdown on recent riots.

The European states, which have been issuing such pieces of advice, Kan'ani said, themselves, do not abide by the norms of international law and take steps towards violation of international commitments and human rights.

The countries in question have arbitrarily detained a considerable number of Iranian citizens, sentenced them to long-term incarceration, or extradited them for "vain reasons and unfounded accusations" based on "self-made and illegal criteria," the spokesperson noted.

"These states have replaced the international laws and conventions with their own courts' political and non-legal rulings," he noted.

"The Islamic Republic is aware of and committed to its international obligations and takes [its] actions in line with its domestic laws and regulations and its international commitments," he concluded.

The European Union has been imposing sanctions against Iran over what it calls the country's approach to the foreign-backed riots that erupted in September following the tragic death of a young Iranian woman, called Mahsa Amini. She fainted at a police station in Tehran and was pronounced dead three days later at the hospital. An official report by Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization concluded that Amini’s death had been caused by illness rather than alleged blows to the head or other vital body organs.

Following her death, rioters went on a rampage, brutally attacking security officers and causing massive damage to public property. Dozens of people and security personnel were killed in the riots.

On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in a phone call that the bloc was sticking to former US President Donald Trump’s “ineffectual” policy of sanctions against Tehran.

“The behavior of the European Union in recent months is the continuation of Trump's ineffective Iran policy. It further proves the continuation of dual and unrealistic standards combined with the exploitation of human rights concepts,” he said.

MNA/PR