Iran Slams British Gov't's Slow Reaction to Embassy Raid

TEHRAN (defapress)- Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani lashed out at the UK government for neglecting its duties to safeguard the Iranian embassy, saying London's performance was meant to win the lucrative arm deals with Saudi Arabia.

News ID: 69168

Date: 12 March 2018 - 19:33

"It was a ping pong game designed by the British government which was played concurrently with the trip of one of the regional states' leaders (the Saudi crown prince) to London," Shamkhani told reporters in Tehran on Monday.

He added that the British government intended to please the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to coax him into purchasing weapons from London.

Several Britain-based Shiite extremists affiliated to Sadeq Shirazi sect attacked the Iranian embassy premises in London, while menacing the staffers with cold weapons.

Four men opened their way into the embassy premises at 16:30 local time, while threatening people on the scene with machetes and baseball bats. The London Police deployed around the embassy but took no action in the first couple of hours after the attack. Later reports said the attackers were arrested after three hours.

The slow pace of police measures against the attack enraged Tehran, and Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Deputy Foreign Minister Abass Araqchi has informed the British Ambassador to Tehran Nicholas Hapton of "the Islamic Republic of Iran's strong protest and asked for the full protection of our country's diplomats and immediate action against the invaders by the police".

Meantime, Chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi blamed the UK for ignoring earlier warnings by Tehran about threats to its mission in London, but said the foreign secretary has extended apology to Iran for the incident.

"London should certainly be blamed for the security breach of the Islamic Republic of Iran's embassy in London," Boroujerdi said on Monday.

"The security officials at the Iranian embassy in London had forseen that this might happen" and had requested the British foreign ministry to increase security measures around the embassy but they had not, and rather assured them that they would protect the mission, he added.

Boroujerdi said that after the raid though, the British officials in separate phone conversations with the Iranian deputy foreign minister and ambassador to London have apologized for the incident.