World  - A human rights activist takes a swipe at the United States for its refusal to criticize human rights violations in its client states such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) said that the United States uses human rights issues as a pretext to attack independent states which refuse to listen to its dictates.

 "Human rights and democracy are used like a weapon. The United States only brings up these topics when it comes to countries that are independent, have their own foreign policies and refuse to listen to the dictates of the United States and its allies," said Nazemroaya in an exclusive interview with Press TV's U.S. desk on Saturday.

 He added that Washington refuses to talk about human rights violations in its satellite states. "You will never hear about it when it comes to countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Colombia. Countries that are allies and satellites or clients of the United States," he went on to explain.