Iran wags finger at British government

TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- The "stick and whip" are what London uses to highlight its human-rights record, a top member of the Iranian Parliament said Thursday

Mohammad Hossein Nejad-Fallah, a leading Iranian lawmaker, accused London of taking a harsh stance against students who were protesting a steep rise in tuition rates Dec. 10.

"The attitude of the British police to students showed that (the) stick and whip are the symbols of the country's human rights," he told the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Tehran is outraged at London following comments made by Simon Gass, the British envoy to Tehran. Gass on Dec. 9, International Human Rights Day, spoke out against Iran's alleged practice of arbitrarily arresting journalists and political activists.

"Nowhere are they under greater threat than in Iran," Gass said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, welcomed a U.N. General Assembly resolution calling on Iran to meet its international human-rights obligations.

Clinton said in a statement that the international community was "deeply concerned" about the culture of repression in Iran, describing it as a "troubling situation."

Tehran next week considers a resolution to sever ties with the British government. Nejad-Fallah said the action of the British and U.S. governments "proved to the world that their slogans of democracy and human rights are deceits and lies."