Iran spreading bloodshed: UK
Published on: Sunday, November 20, 2022
By: AFP
MANAMA: Britain’s foreign minister on Saturday hit out at Iran for “spreading bloodshed” and vowed to work with allies to counter Tehran as he addressed leaders in Bahrain.Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Iran of supplying Russia with drones (pic) that they say Moscow has used in recent weeks to carry out attacks in Ukraine.ADVERTISEMENT
Earlier this month, Tehran admitted it had sent drones, but insisted they were supplied before Russia’s invasion.
“Iranian-supplied weapons threaten the entire region,” British foreign secretary James Cleverly told the annual Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain.
“The regime has resorted to selling Russia the armed drones that are killing civilians in Ukraine”.
Cleverly spoke a day after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also warned in Bahrain that Iran’s “weapons proliferation” is a threat to Europe.ADVERTISEMENT
The growing criticism comes as Iran grapples with mass protests—the biggest in years—following the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by Iran’s notorious morality police for an alleged breach of its strict dress code for women.
“As their people demonstrate against decades of oppression, Iran’s rulers are spreading bloodshed and destruction across the region and as far away as Kyiv”, Cleverly said.
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“Britain is determined to work alongside our friends to counter the Iranian threat”.
On Monday, the EU hit more than 30 senior Iranian officials and organisations with sanctions over Tehran’s crackdown on protesters and the supply of drones to Russia.
Iran on Saturday criticised the “silence” of the international community in the face of acts of violence in the country during protests.
Iran’s foreign ministry hit out at the “deliberate silence of foreign promoters of chaos and violence in Iran in the face of... terrorist operations in several Iranian cities”.
“It is the duty of the international community and international assemblies to condemn the recent terrorist acts in Iran and not to provide a safe haven for extremists,” it said in a statement.
On Wednesday, 10 people including a woman, two children and a security officer were killed in two separate attacks in the cities of Izeh and Isfahan, according to state media and a hospital source.
Two members of Iran’s pro-government Basij paramilitary force were stabbed to death in the northeastern city of Mashhad while trying to intervene against “rioters”, according to state news agency IRNA.
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