TEHRAN – Iran’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the British Tehran ambassador in response to repeated, unfounded accusations from British officials of alleged Iranian interference in the UK’s internal affairs.
British Ambassador Hugo Shorter was called by Alileza Yousefy, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Commander of Western Europe, who officially conveyed Iran’s strong opposition to these claims.
During the diplomatic meeting, Yousefy condemned the UK’s “biased, unfounded allegations” against Iran, highlighting that such rhetoric has established standards of international law and diplomatic conduct. He warned that these accusations will only deepen Iran’s distrust of British policy, not just in Iran, but also in the broader Western Asia region.
Yousefi urged the UK government to rethink its “constructive approach” and called for a shift towards a more responsible and balanced diplomacy. In response, Shorter said he would communicate Iran’s concerns to the British government.
The move aims to put Tehran under more scrutiny on suspicion of engaging in hostile activities in the UK as Iran opposes the UK’s latest security measures.
In response to these developments, Esmaeir Bakaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, has sharply criticised the UK’s stance, accusing it of being hypocrisy in Britain.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote:
Bakaei further mentioned British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer’s refusal to point out Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, and the role of Britain in organizing the 1953 coup that overturned Iran’s democratically elected government under Prime Minister Mohammad Mosadegu.
“The British government appears to be doubling the irrational hostile spirit about Iranians, and doubles just to divert from its own negligence, as a ‘genocide denier’ and back to the 1953 coup against Iran’s democratically elected government, as a supporter of anti-Iranian terrorism. ”
He also warned that Iran would no longer tolerate such actions without consequences.
“This is no longer the 19th century. Governments that make unfounded accusations and take hostile actions against the Iranian state will be accountable,” declared Bakaei.
The diplomatic conflict told Parliament on Wednesday that the Iranian government, security services and the Islamic Revolutionary Security Corps (IRGC) will be placed under a strengthened tier of the new foreign impact registration scheme, following an announcement by British Security Minister Dan Jarvis.
However, Tehran argues that such claims are politically motivated and an extension of the long history of British interference in the Iranian issue.
Tensions between Iran and Britain are rooted in problematic history. Many Iranians own the UK responsible for the great hunger and genocide between 1917 and 1919, from 2 million, from that time, to some degree, half of the population at the time was out of starvation and disease. Hunger occurred while Iran was being occupied by British and Russian troops despite its declaration of neutrality in World War I.