Iran says UN rights move shows US double standard

Iran said on Friday that a United Nations decision to appoint a special investigator on human rights in Iran was a Washington ploy to put pressure on Tehran and showed US "double standards" on the issue.

The UN Human Rights Council voted to establish a special rapporteur for Iran on Friday, the first time it has appointed an investigator to a specific country since its creation nearly five years ago.

US President Barack Obama's national security adviser Tom Donilon said the appointment reaffirmed "the global consensus and alarm about the dismal state of human rights in Iran."

But Tehran said the move was part of Washington's strategy of putting pressure on the Islamic Republic, which it has considered an enemy since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the western-backed Shah.

The United States and other world powers tightened sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear programme last year.

"The aim of the resolution was to put pressure on the Islamic Republic and to further sidetrack ... the UN Human Rights Council's periodic review of the human rights situation across the world," foreign ministry spokesperson Mehmanparast told the official IRNA news agency.

Iran says abuses by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the existence of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre show Washington is in no position to lecture others on human rights.

"US policies both in deeds and words have always been paradoxical and predicated upon double standards, and the recent resolution clearly exemplifies such behaviour," Mehmanparast said.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said this month that Iran had intensified its crackdown on opponents and executions of drug traffickers, political prisoners and juvenile criminals.

In a report, he also cited cases of amputations, floggings and the continued sentencing of men and women to death by stoning for alleged adultery.