"[A] topsy-turvy situation is unfolding where an abnormal regime in Tehran is being mainstreamed as normal.
A telling example is an Iran-Italy conference this week in Rome titled 'Protection of Human Rights in the Penal-Judicial System of Iran and Italy.'
The head of Iran's Human Rights Council, Mohammad Javad Larijani, appeared at the event. This is the same Larijani who defended the stoning of women and denied the Holocaust at a 2008 German foreign ministry event.
According to a Sunday report by the Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, Larijani said at the conference that Iran is 'the most powerful and advanced democracy in the region.'
He lamented that 'since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, there have been many discussions between Iran and the West on different topics, and unfortunately some of these topics have been misunderstood and misinterpreted due to a lack of information about the rational nature of the Islamic Republic system's pillars and its mechanisms.'"