Words: Steve Brown

Iran’s Foreign Minister has defended the execution of gay people.

In the Middle Eastern country, homosexuality violated Islamic Law and can be punishable by death and since 1979 Islamic revolution, it has been reported that thousands of LGBTQ people have been executed.

Now, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Sarif defended the draconian punishment during a press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas while in Tehran.

When asked why gay people are executed in his country, Sarif responded: “Our society has moral principles concerning the behaviour of people in general.

“And that means that the law is respected, and the law is obeyed.”

According to German publication Bild, the foreign ministry’s Michael Roth hit back at Sarif and said: “LGBTQ rights are human rights.

“And they have always been. Everywhere. No religious, cultural or ethnic tradition justifies state persecution, especially the execution of homosexuals.

“In Iran and seven other countries worldwide, homosexuals face the death penalty. That is inhuman and completely unacceptable.”

The US ambassador to Germany and the most senior openly-gay official, Richard Grenell, slammed Iran’s archaic punishment saying all UN members should honour the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

He said: “"The Iranian regime has violated basic principles of the United Nations.

"UN members should honour (the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights) if they want to be members at all.

“The criminalisation of homosexuality plainly violates this declaration."