Iran the world leader in abuse of human rights

IT is difficult to see why the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Rahimpour, should see fit to involve himself in a controversy concerning a report on the Shannon stopover of the Israeli prime minister (Letters, November 25).

Mr Rahimpour represents a country whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly called for Israel — a state 80 times smaller than his own with one-twelfth of its population — to be “wiped off the map”.

His country supplies Hezbollah and Hamas with the rockets they use to attack Israeli civilians.

As the representative of a country that is a world leader in the abuse of human rights, the Iranian ambassador should hesitate before he invokes international law against a small democratic state forced to defend its citizens. Iran has ignored calls from the council of the EU to halt its wholesale use of the death penalty (317 people were executed in 2007 alone, the second highest figure in the world, including scores of juvenile offenders).

It has for many years persecuted its Baha’i religious minority and its Kurdish national minority as well as routinely imprisoning women’s rights activists and those who criticised the recent rigged elections.

Before he meddles in the Israel-Palestinian issue, the Iranian ambassador should address the welfare of his own citizens.

Pat O’Sullivan

South Circular Road,

Limerick