Iran summoned the British ambassador to Tehran to protest what it called âbaseless accusationsâ, state media said on Thursday, after a London court jailed two people for a knife attack it said was carried out at Iranâs behest.
âFollowing the repetition of false and baseless accusations by British officials against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the countryâs ambassador in Tehran was summoned to the ministry, and the Islamic Republic of Iranâs protest against the British governmentâs inappropriate approach towards the Iranian nation was conveyed to him,â the official IRNA news agency said on Thursday.
Two Romanians, convicted of a 2024 knife attack on an Iranian journalist outside his London home âon behalf ofâ Iran, were sentenced last week to 12 and eight years in prison respectively.
At the sentencing, the judge said the evidence âoverwhelmingly pointsâ to the attack on Pouria Zeraati, a news presenter for Persian-language outlet Iran International, having been carried out on behalf of the Iranian government.
British security minister Angela Eagle said following the sentencing that the âabhorrent attackâ was âcarried out on behalf of Iranâ and âwe will continue to hold the regime to accountâ.
IRNA said Tehran told the British ambassador that the countryâs âcontinued hosting of terrorist channels that are financed and directed by the apartheid and fake Israeli regime, and whose main role is to encourage violence and terrorism, violates the British governmentâs international legal obligations to refrain from supporting terrorism and must be stopped as soon as possibleâ.
Iran International, a private broadcaster based in a heavily secured building in west London, was labelled a terrorist organisation by Tehran in 2022 along with the BBCâs Persian-language channel.
AFP
