The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Tuesday condemning the human rights violations in Iran. The resolution on human rights in Iran was passed with 83 votes in favor, 30 against and 68 abstentions. The General Assembly strongly condemns the increasing wave of executions, the violation of freedom of speech and assembly, the violation of religious and ethnic rights and discrimination against women, the resolution read. This came after Asma Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, submitted her report to the world body last month, saying there had been little change in the human situation in Iran over the past year. She added the harassment of journalists in Iran had been intensified, stressing that the progress on women’s rights was extremely slow. Saudi Permanent Representative to the United Nations Abdullah al-Mouallimi said that Iran has been playing a role in Iraq and Lebanon, explaining that “Iranian authorities have taken a sectarian approach, by attempting to empty cities of their population and replacing sectarian groups instead to an extent that some areas have changed from how they have been for hundreds of years.” In his speech, Mouallimi said that his country supports the UN resolution as it sheds light on the human rights violations taking place in Iran, including the arrest of minorities and torturing them. He added that the violations committed by the Iranian authorities have extended to Syria, where they practiced sectarian cleansing by emptying villages and towns where people from certain sects live and discriminate against Arabs. “Iranian authorities have practiced serious violations against Arabs and Ahwaz rights as they passed laws to work on displacing them and change the demographic structure in the eastern and northern Arab Gulf,” Mouallimi said.