In a post on X on Saturday, Gharibabadi referred to reports about a US federal court order temporarily suspending sanctions imposed by Washington against Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Albanese was sanctioned by the US in July 2025 after she publicly criticized Washington’s policy on the Israeli regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.
“Human rights in the US lexicon are respected only until they reach the Israeli regime,” the Iranian diplomat wrote. “Whenever accountability for the regime and its supporters over the crimes in Gaza is raised, Washington resorts to sanctions, threats and intimidation instead of defending the law.”
Gharibabadi said sanctioning a UN special rapporteur for seeking accountability through the International Criminal Court exposed “the true face of US human rights policy: human rights for enemies, immunity for allies.”
He added that the approach reflected “the same double standard that has for years held international justice hostage to Washington’s political interests.”
The senior Iranian diplomat further argued that the US “cannot simultaneously speak of a rules-based order while targeting every institution, expert or mechanism that approaches the crimes of the Israeli regime with pressure.”
“If international law is only valid as long as it does not touch US allies, then it is no longer law; it is a tool of domination,” he said, adding that the independence of UN missions and the rights of Palestinian victims to “truth and justice” must not be sacrificed to protect Israel from accountability.
