Tehran, June 1 (RHC)-- Iran's foreign minister has rebuked the United States for its brutality against African Americans, urging the entire world to wage war against racism.
"Some don't think 'Black Lives Matter,'" Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted over the weekend, referring to an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards Black people.
"To those of us who do: it is long overdue for the entire world to wage war against racism," he added.
"Time for a World Against Racism," Zarif noted, apparently alluding to the earlier "World Against Violence Extremism (WAVE)" proposal by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which was unanimously approved by the UN General Assembly in December 2013.
In his tweet, the Iranian foreign minister also posted an image of a revised version of his American counterpart's 2018 statement on Iran protests, changing a few words in Mike Pompeo's remarks to turn it into Iran's statement on the U.S. protests.
Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly denounced rampant bloodshed of African-Americans in the United States and the country’s suppression of the protests that have followed the recent grisly murder of a Black man by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
“Iran regrets the tragic murder of black Americans, denounces deadly racial profiling in the United States & urges authorities to do justice for every case,” the ministry said in a tweet on Friday.
The condemnation came three days after disturbing footage surfaced online showing the police officer, Derek Chauvin, choking unarmed George Floyd to death after forcing him to the ground and pinning him down with his knee.
The officer refused to relieve the pressure, although Floyd was being heard repeatedly pleading for his life and saying, “I can’t breathe.”
Floyd’s death, a poignant reminder of repeated unjustifiable killings of members of the African-American community by the U.S. police, has been followed by protests across the country.
