Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met German’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas who visited Tehran on Monday, June 10, 2019 to negotiate with Iran’s leader mostly on the continuance of the Nuclear Deal. Zarif faced a challenging question during his joint press conference. While the Iranian FM answered, the German remained silent, causing consternation and later clarification.
A reporter from German tabloid Bild asked: “Why are homosexuals executed in Iran because of their sexual orientation?”
Zarif responded: “Our society has moral principles. And we live according to these principles. These are moral principles concerning the behavior of people in general and that means that the law is respected and the law is obeyed.”
“This is the FM Zarif’s belief that homosexuality is an immoral behaviour and therefore, according to Islamic Punishment Code, they should be punished. It is very simple and it is just a matter of respecting the law not human lives!” Arsham Parsi, the IRQR’s Executive Director
The German Foreign Minister, Maas ignored the issue and did not make any statement during the press conference. Michael Roth from the German Foreign Ministry later clarified to Bild:
“LGBTI rights are human rights. And they have always been. Everywhere. No religious, cultural or ethnic tradition justifies state persecution, especially the execution of homosexuals. In Iran and seven other countries worldwide, homosexuals face the death penalty. That is inhuman and completely unacceptable.”
His comments came only after Maas was criticized by German politicians for not addressing the issue at the time.
The US ambassador to Germany and the country’s most senior openly-gay official, Richard Grenell, on Wednesday slammed Iran for its position in comments to German and Israeli media.
“The Iranian regime has violated basic principles of the United Nations,” he told the German Press Agency (DPA).
“UN members should honor (the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights) if they want to be members at all. The criminalization of homosexuality plainly violates this declaration.”
Source: Deutsche Welle and HERE
Posted as a REBLOG by Melanie Nathan
Advocacy: African Human Rights Coalition
Speaker: http://www.melnathan.com
Follow me on Twitter – @MelanieNathan1
Instagram: @commissionermelnathan
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/melanie.nathan1
The failure to protest and object to the Foreign Minister’s comments is disgusting – but not unexpected. The West has chosen to keep silence, whether it is to Christian Uganda in Africa or to the Arab nations throughout the middle east and east Asia.
Very sad.