IRAN: Khamenei mocks U.S. concern for human rights in Iran

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had harsh words today for the United States and other Western countries he accused of stirring up the unrest over last week’s disputed elections.

Such accusations -- rejected by Western officials -- have been running nonstop for days on state-run television.

Khamenei mocked America’s concern for human-rights issues in Iran, noting that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s husband was president when federal forces stormed the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, setting off a fire that killed scores of people.

‘Do you even believe in human rights?’ he said, criticizing America for its involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and its support for Israel.

‘The followers of the Davidian sect were staging a sit-in protest in a house,’ he said. ‘The authorities asked them to come out. The Davidians refused. More than 80 men, women and children were burned alive in this house.’

He called the British ‘the most evil’ of the Western governments, most likely for launching the highly influential BBC Persian satellite news channel months before the vote.

‘Please see the hungry wolves in ambush gradually removing their masks of diplomacy and showing their true faces,’ he said. ‘Today, senior diplomats of some Western countries, who addressed us diplomatically up until today, have now removed their masks. They are showing their true faces.’

-- Borzou Daragahi in Tehran