The Iranian Foreign Ministry unequivocally denounces a resolution passed at the United Nations General Assembly, which has found fault with the human rights situation in Iran.

Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Thursday called the Canada-proposed resolution, which had been adopted at the Assembly a day earlier, a document devised based on a “selective, ill-intentioned, confrontational, and politically-charged attitude.”

He said the resolution represented an attempt at taking political mileage out of and instrumentalization of human rights and application of double-standards to the issue, adding that such an approach stands in the way of sustainable betterment of the human rights situation in the world.

The resolution was adopted by 81 votes for and 30 against, with 70 abstentions. Western states and two of their closest regional allies, namely Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, had voted in favor of the resolution.

It has accused Iran of discriminating against women and religious minorities, and alleged insufficient attention by the Iranian authorities to prisoners’ conditions and freedom of expression.

Mousavi noted those supporting the resolution were themselves adopting double standards concerning human rights, and tried to have international institutions such as the United Nations do the same, adding, “We express regret that the UN’s mechanisms have come to be abused in such a way.”

Saudi Arabia has been widely condemned for its coming down hard on dissent, practicing an extremely radical ideology, and subtracting women from key sectors of its society. The kingdom has also been leading a military invasion of Yemen since 2015 that has left hundreds of thousands dead.

The UAE is the second-foremost country to take part in the military aggression. Abu Dhabi has also been accused of running secret prisons in Yemen, where torture and physical abuse run rampant.

Many of the Western states, which approved of the anti-Iran resolution, however, readily engage with the kingdom and the UAE, sidestepping their human rights records, and generously arm the Saudi-led military coalition.

The resolution is rendered all the more illegitimate, given its endorsement by the Zionist front and the reactionary regional regimes, which are ignorant of all human rights standards, and themselves support terrorism and extremism, he noted.

He called the Islamic Republic a religious democratic establishment, which acts dutifully on its religious, moral, and domestic obligations as well as relevant international conventions to observe and promote human rights.