Majlis passes budget to fight US, UK HR abuse

Iranian Parliamentarians earmark millions of dollars to confront what they call "gross violations of human rights" by Britain and the US.

In a newly-passed resolution on Sunday, the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) allocated around 20 million dollars from the Iranian Oil Stabilization Fund to investigate human rights abuses committed by the US and British government around the world.

"The resolution aims to counter the rising tide of US and British plots against Iran and also to raise world awareness about the numerous cases of human rights abuses by Downing Street and the White House," said a statement released on Sunday.

According to the statement, the money will also be used to finance the efforts of human rights organizations and other groups investigating US and British violations of international humanitarian law.

A committee that includes representatives from the Intelligence and Foreign ministries has been set up accordingly to decide how to divide and spend the budget.

The bill comes one day after two Afghan teenagers held in US detention north of Kabul told The Washington Post that they were beaten to the pulp by American guards, photographed naked, deprived of sleep, forced to look at pornography and held in solitary confinement in concrete cells for at least two weeks.

The revelation, which is in stark contrast to the Obama administration's claims of defending human rights and improving detention conditions, is cause for serious concern.

“Holding people in what appears to be incommunicado detention runs against the grain of the administration's commitment to greater transparency, accountability, and respect for the dignity of Afghans,” Jonathan Horowitz, a human rights researcher with the Open Society Institute, told The New York Times.