Shirin Ebadi on Iran: 'Hit the regime, not the people'

According to The National, Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel prize-winning lawyer, has urged the international community not to ignore Tehran's violations of human rights as it tries to impose new sanctions over Iran's nuclear weapons programme.

In an interview with The National, she said sanctions should not burden the Iranian people but penalize companies that have helped the regime tackle and censor the opposition Green Movement.

At a conference of the United Nations Women's Commission in New York, she said, "I oppose any sanctions that are to the detriment of the Iranian people. But not giving visas to politicians or an embargo on arms is not to the detriment of the people."

Again we see human rights take the backseat to security issues.