Iran Summons UK Ambassador, Demands London Stop Hosting Anti-Iran TV Networks

Tehran rejects British accusations over an attack on an Iran International journalist as a "blame game," and tells London to end its support for what it calls terrorist broadcasters

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Britain’s ambassador to Tehran to protest what it described as baseless accusations levelled against the Islamic Republic by UK officials, calling on London to cease hosting and supporting anti-Iranian television networks.

The envoy was summoned on Thursday by Alireza Yousefi, the ministry’s director-general for Western Europe, who formally conveyed Iran’s objection to what he characterised as the British government’s inappropriate conduct toward the Iranian nation.

The move came two days after Britain summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in London, following the sentencing of two Romanian nationals over the stabbing of a journalist employed by Iran International, a UK-based television channel that Tehran regards as hostile. In the wake of the ruling, the British Foreign Office alleged that the attack had been carried out on behalf of and in the interests of the Iranian state, and said Iran’s actions sought to undermine British sovereignty and security.

‘A blame game’

Yousefi dismissed the British allegations as an attempt to shift blame while avoiding accountability for London’s own conduct. Such accusations, he said, amounted to a blame game that evaded responsibility for actions inconsistent with international law — among them, in his account, Britain’s collaboration with the United States and Israel in the destabilization of West Asia, and its hosting of anti-Iranian networks.

Rather than making what he called fabricated charges against Iran, Yousefi said, the British government should correct its approach toward the Iranian people, halt its hosting and support of violent networks and individuals, and abandon what he termed its wholesale backing of Israel.

He further argued that the United Kingdom’s continued hosting of such networks — which he said are funded and directed by Israel with the aim of inciting violence — constitutes a violation of Britain’s international legal obligations to refrain from supporting terrorism, and must be brought to an immediate end.

The summoning is the latest in a series of diplomatic clashes between Tehran and London, which have escalated sharply since Britain’s alignment with the US and Israeli campaign against Iran earlier this year.

Reference: PressTv