‘Iran at Forefront of Tackling Terror, Human trafficking’

Iranian lawmaker Mojtaba Zonnouri says the Islamic Republic is at the forefront of the campaign against terrorism, according to a Farsi report by ICANA.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is ahead of Western countries and the US when it comes to fighting terrorism as well as the smuggling of narcotics and humans,” said Zonnouri, who is a member of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

He said Iran has been the biggest victim of terrorism, and at the same time has launched the most extensive fight against terrorists.

“Iran has not been involved in a single case of human trafficking, and this cannot happen through our country, either,” said the legislator.

The MP note that Iran is very sensitive about human trafficking and regards it as legally and religiously forbidden.

“In fact, the Americans always accuse us of violating our own principles. On nuclear issues, too, they keep accusing Iran of breaching the peaceful [nuclear work] agreement despite the fact that the [International Atomic Energy] has not presented any documents in its reports which prove Iran has not been moving on the peaceful path,” the legislator noted.

He said Washington has resorted to levelling accusations against Iran and “charlatanism” because they cannot present a documented case of violation by Iran.

The White House announced last Saturday that it had put Iran along with Venezuela and four African countries (Congo, South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan) on the list of countries which the US claims refrain from fighting human-smuggling. Also, the administration of US President Donald Trump called on the American executive director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other American executive directors of development banks to oppose the extension of loans to Iran, Russia and North Korea or the offering of any financial assistance to the three countries in fiscal year 2018, which begins on October 9.