Iran Dismisses US Human Trafficking Report

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected as groundless a recent US report accusing Iran of involvement in human trafficking, saying the one-sided report is aimed at drawing the world’s attention away from Washington’s own failure to fulfill its commitment to combating human trafficking.

News ID: 66153

Date: 05 October 2017 - 14:11

"We believe that the US government is seeking to distract the world’s attention from its commitments under international treaties and conventions in human trafficking by playing a blame game,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said in on Wednesday.

He said the "biased” US report leveling "groundless and bogus” accusations against Iran has been based upon unauthentic sources and data.

The Islamic Republic of Iran vehemently condemns the US government for releasing unreliable reports on human trafficking and leveling undue accusations against independent states, the spokesperson added.

Qassemi then noted that as a signatory of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Iran has so far adopted massive executive and legal measures in the fight against "the nasty phenomenon” of human trafficking.

"Iran’s measures have been confirmed by the related UN-affiliated institutions and mentioned in the reports released by the UN Office on Drug and Crime,” he stressed.

Iran maintains that in the fight against human trafficking, particularly the trafficking of children and women, one needs to address the fundamental and basic causes behind the phenomenon, particularly foreign intervention and armed clashes, he said.

"It goes without saying that the US interventionist and destabilizing policies across the globe, especially in Western Asia and Africa, have paved the way for the emergence of transnational criminal gangs which are active in human trafficking,” Qassemi added.

He also described the US president’s latest request from the executive managers of International Monetary Fund and multi-lateral development banks for depriving Iran of financial facilitates as an indication of his ignorance of international organizations’ legal mechanisms.

Moreover, "requests like this amount to Washington’s stark interference in international organizations’ affairs and inflict a blow on their legal independence,” he concluded.

On Saturday, the White House announced that Iran, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan and Sudan will be added to the list of the countries subject to restrictions for the fiscal year 2018 due to what it calls failing to fight human trafficking.