TEHRAN, 23 November 2003 — Iran dismissed yesterday a resolution from a United Nations committee rebuking Tehran for human rights violations, describing the measure as “distorted”, state news agency IRNA reported. The resolution, drafted by Canada, “interferes in Iran’s internal affairs and is distorted,” Iran’s representative in the UN human rights committee, Peymaneh Hasteii, was quoted as saying.

“The content of the resolution is not constructive, and the current approach will discourage Iran in elevating its cooperation with the world community in the area of human rights,” she added.

A UN committee on Friday approved a resolution drafted by Canada rebuking Iran for rights violations including torture, suppression of free speech and discrimination against women.

Introducing the resolution on Thursday, Canada’s deputy UN ambassador Gilbert Laurin denied the move was in retaliation for the death of a Canadian photographer in police custody in Tehran in July.

“It is an example of what is wrong with the human rights situation in Iran. Sadly, it is not the only case. There are too many others,” Laurin said.

Touching on the thorny issue of the slain Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi, Hasteii said: “Her murder brought remorse to all Iranians, the officials and the ordinary people ... even the president and the Parliament did their own independent investigations.” Zahra died in July in police custody after being arrested for taking pictures outside Tehran’s Evin prison. She was not mentioned specifically in the resolution.

Meanwhile, the United States has dropped demands to take Iran’s nuclear program before the UN Security Council as US and European diplomats hold weekend talks in their capitals on how to crack down on Tehran for hiding sensitive atomic activities, diplomats said in Vienna yesterday.

In Washington, a senior State Department official hinted at a softening of the US position saying Friday: “I’m not sure frankly, that referring it to the Security Council is something that we are insisting on in our negotiations” for a meeting at the Vienna-based UN atomic agency.

Kenneth Brill, the US ambassador at the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Friday presented the hard-line US stance blasting Iran for two decades of “brazen and systematic” breaches of nuclear safeguards, including making plutonium, and said Tehran was trying to develop nuclear weapons.

The United States has been trying to get the IAEA to declare Iran in “non-compliance” with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a move that could bring the issue before the UN Security Council, which could then slap sanctions on Iran.

But at a meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors Europe’s big three — Britain, France and Germany — presented a draft resolution that goes easy on Iran, as they claim that antagonizing Tehran could prompt it to cut off cooperation with the IAEA.