Iran slams US for setting up terrorist groups, any act of terror across region

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, said the Islamic Republic has all the necessary documents proving the United States set up terrorist groups not only inside Iran but across the region.

“Groups such as al-Qaeda, Daesh and the al-Nusra were all created by the United States and the responsibility for the terrorist acts by these groups and their members lies directly with the US.”

Gharibabadi said the US and its Western allies hatched a plot after the victory of the Islamic Revolution to “disintegrate various parts of the country by creating terrorist groups.”

One such group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) has killed and martyred more than 17,000 oppressed Iranian people, he said, adding that Tehran has warned Western countries that the MKO would show no mercy to them.

“We have recently witnessed events in France and Albania. These countries have now come to the conclusion that such groups are fundamentally terrorist and they even threaten their host countries,” Gharibabadi said.

He said while Iran has effectively worked to uproot terrorist groups in the region, the United States assassinated the top Iranian anti-terror commander Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and his companions.

Gharibabadi further said the United States’ record is replete with crimes against Iran and numerous other countries including Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Iraq and Afghanistan.

"More than 35 million people have been killed by the US," he said. "Of those, 27 million have been Native Americans, and 4.5 million people were killed in the Vietnam War. Furthermore, in Cuba, Mexico, Iraq, and Afghanistan, numerous massacres and crimes against humanity have been committed."

The senior Iranian rights official said “some 4,000 people die in prisons in the United Sates every year,” so Washington is in no position to talk about human rights.