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Iran dismisses EU foreign chief's remarks as "meddling"

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Ashton is better to "worry about the human rights situation in EU member states," Mehmanparast was quoted as saying.

Earlier, Ashton expressed concerns over the imprisonment of two Iranian human rights lawyers, Nasrin Sotoudeh and Abdolfattah Soltani.

Sotoudeh was reportedly arrested in 2010 on charges of breaching Iran's national security and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Soltani, a spokesman for the Defenders of Human Rights Center co-founded by the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, has been incarcerated in the Islamic Republic twice, in 2005 and 2009.

Mehmanparast criticized EU's human rights policy as "double standards" and as a "tool" against other countries.

Copyright NNI (News Network International), 2011