TEHRAN – Iran has warned Britain it will “pay” for its actions to destabilise the Islamic republic in the protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, state media reported today.
Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib also accused Iran’s major regional rival Saudi Arabia of financing media outlets behind the wave of unrest, now in its eighth week.
Iran says Britain harbours hostile Persian-language media reporting on the protests sparked by the death of Amini, 22, following her arrest by the morality police for an alleged breach of Iran’s dress code for women.
“In recent events, the involvement of the British in the propaganda, and the Saudi regime in the financing, was more than obvious,” the minister was quoted as saying.
“Unlike Britain, we will never support terrorist acts and insecurity in other countries, but we will have no obligation to prevent the emergence of insecurity in these countries,” he said.
“Thus the United Kingdom will pay for its actions to make Iran insecure.”
Khatib said the London-based, Persian-language TV channel Iran International had been declared a “terrorist organisation” whose “agents will be prosecuted by the Intelligence Ministry”.
Dozens of people, mainly demonstrators but also members of the security forces, have been killed in the wave of protests, which Iranian authorities call “riots”, and in the state’s crackdown on them.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry early last month summoned the UK ambassador to protest “the interference of the British Foreign Office in the internal affairs of Iran, by resorting to false and provocative interpretations”. – AFP, November 9, 2022
