UK summons Iranian ambassador for 'violence, killings' in protests

LONDON

Britain has summoned the Iranian envoy to the UK to demand Iran "answer for the horrific reports" regarding violence and killings against demonstrators, the foreign secretary said Tuesday.

The British minister for the Middle East has summoned Seyed Ali Mousavi "to underline the gravity of this moment and to call Iran to answer for the horrific reports that we are hearing," Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said in an update on Iran in the House of Commons.

Cooper noted that during a call with her Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, on Monday, she set out the UK's "total abhorrence of the killings, the violence and the repression," and urged them to "immediately end the violence and change course."

Noting new measures that the government is taking, she said it will not tolerate any "Iran-backed threats" on UK soil.

Cooper also noted that the UK supporting British nationals in Iran continues to be her government's priority while expressing her wishes for a coordinated economic and diplomatic pressure on the Iranian authorities.

"Overall, this government has imposed over 220 Iran sanctions designations since coming into office," said Cooper, vowing to bring forward legislation to implement full and further sanctions and sectoral measures.

"Further measures will target finance, energy, transport, software and other significant industries which are advancing Iranian nuclear escalation," she said.

Iran has been rocked by protests since late December, beginning at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Dec. 28, amid a sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial and worsening economic conditions. Demonstrations later spread to several cities across the country.

There are no official casualty figures, but HRANA, a US-based rights group, said that at least 646 people have been killed, including security forces and protesters, with more than 1,000 injured.

The group reported that at least 10,681 people have been detained during protests at 585 locations nationwide, including 186 cities across all 31 provinces.