Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president, is “seriously considering” cutting diplomatic ties with Iceland, which initiated a resolution asking the United Nations to investigate the deaths of thousands of people under his so-called “war on drugs”

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters late on Monday that the resolution which was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in a vote last week, showed “how the Western powers are scornful of our sovereign exercise of protecting our people from the scourge of prohibited drugs”.

Panelo added that Duterte was “seriously considering cutting diplomatic relations with Iceland” for initiating the resolution, which he described as “grotesquely one-sided, outrageously narrow, and maliciously partisan”.

The Philippine police have said at least 6,600 people were killed during the first half of Duterte’s six-year presidency, all of them in shootouts with police.

But rights groups have put the death toll at more than 20,000 since 2016.

Human rights groups have welcomed the UN resolution as a way to bring an end to the killings and other abuses, and ensure accountability.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet is expected to deliver her report by June next year.