Iran official calls for UN investigation of CIA torture

Long a target of human rights sanctions, Iran has called for a UN investigation into human rights violations by the United States.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) (L) discusses a newly released Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's anti-terrorism tactics, in a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, in this still image taken from video, on Capitol Hill in Washington December 9, 2014. "Enhanced interrogation" techniques used by the CIA on militants detained in secret prisons were ineffective and never produced information which led to the disruption of imminent terrorist plots, the declassified repo
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) (L) discusses a newly released Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's anti-terrorism tactics, in a speech on the floor of the US Senate, in this still image taken from video, Washington, DC, Dec. 9, 2014. - REUTERS/Senate TV
Al Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Arash Karami
@thekarami
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Iran is one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world. A number of the most crippling sanctions are imposed by the United States and the UN Security Council over Iran’s nuclear program. However, there are also a number of US sanctions against senior Iranian officials over human rights violations, and in August 2011, the United Nations also created a mandate for Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed to “monitor and investigate” human rights violations by Iran.

But Iran was given an opportunity to strike back at US officials after the US Senate Intelligence Committee published a report Dec. 9 revealing the CIA’s secret interrogations of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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