WASHINGTON, December 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A new U.S. report claimed that Iran and Saudi Arabia are the worst offenders of religious freedom rights in the Middle East, similarly assailing Iraq-war opponents France and China.

But the International Religious Freedom report, released by the U.S. State Department Thursday, December 18, singled some countries for good ratings as Israel and India.

In Iran and Saudi Arabia, the report said, there is a state hostility toward minority or what it termed “non-approved religions”.

In Iran, members of the country's religious minorities “suffered varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, including intimidation, harassment and imprisonment in Iran.

It singled out Jews as the mostly discriminated against in the Islamic republic, saying that their number was substantially reduced from 75,000 prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution to an estimated 20,000 in 2003.

The designations do not carry sanctions, but Iran is already subject to myriad U.S. restrictions and continues to be designated as “country of particular concern” in the area of religious freedom. This action followed three similar designations in 1999, 2000, and 2001.

Observers said that the report’s attack on Iran could be politically motivated, as it coincides with the U.S. barrage of criticism against the country allegedly for seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction - the charge Tehran vehemently denied.

The report also took a swipe at Saudi Arabia, under the U.S. fire for not taking enough action to crack down on what Washington sees as “extremists”.

It did, however, note that Saudi Arabia had taken steps to rein in rising levels of intolerance toward other religions including the replacement of more than 2,000 government-paid imams accused of fomenting violence.

The report maintained that there continued to be “religious discrimination and sectarian tension in society ... including ongoing denunciations of non-Muslim religions from government sanctioned pulpits”.

As it has in its previous four editions, the 2003 report bluntly identifies Saudi Arabia as a country totally void of religious freedom.

Egypt was named a lesser offending nation where there is either state neglect religious persecution or discrimination toward certain groups.

The report also rebuked the U.S. anti-terror ally Pakistan for failing in “many respects" to protect religious minorities and for passing discriminatory laws that fueled religious intolerance.

Pakistan “failed in many respects to protect the rights of religious minorities, due to both public policy and the government's unwillingness to take action against societal forces hostile to those who practice a different faith,” said the report.

Pakistan's archrival, India, however, earned broadly good marks in the report, which said that the Indian government largely permitted believers to worship freely.

Relations among religious groups - between Jews and non-Jews, between Muslims and Christians, and among the different streams of Judaism - often are strained, said the report.

But the tensions have increased significantly since the start of the Intifada in October 2000 and again during the period covered by the report, due primarily to Palestinian attacks and Israeli aggressions, “all of which resulted in some impediments to religious practice.

The report said that although the Basic Law describes the country as a “Jewish”, Israeli Arabs, temporary residents, and other non-Jewish Israelis are generally free to practice their religions.

“The Declaration of Independence provides for full social and political equality regardless of religious affiliation. Israeli Arabs and other non-Jews are generally free to practice their religions,” it said.

The report also hailed moves of Israeli groups to contain any forms of religious tension in the country and promote co-existence “between Jewish and Arab citizens”.

The report also expressed concern over French plans for a ban on overt religious symbols in state schools.

The U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, John Hanford, grouped France with a list of countries accused of abusing religious freedom.

“All persons should be able to practise their religion and their beliefs peacefully without government interference," he was quoted by the BBC online news service, as saying.

France was a staunch opponent to the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq, and cleared away from Washington’s appeals for the international community to send troops there as long as the war-ravaged country is still under occupation.

On the contrary, U.S. Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage, who presented the report, said the U.S. enjoys an atmosphere conducive to religious freedom.

“This is the season of faith for so many Americans” belonging to various religions, he boasted.