TEHRAN (AFP) : Iran on Tuesday summoned the British ambassador to Tehran, state news agency IRNA reported, a day after Britain and the US announced sanctions on a network purportedly involved in targeting Iranian dissidents and activists for assassination.
According to IRNA, British Ambassador Simon Shercliff was called to the Iranian foreign ministry, where an official from the ministry described the sanctions as “illegal” and condemned London’s accusations as “baseless.”
The group targeted by US and British sanctions, said to run “at the behest of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS),” is alleged to have conducted assassinations and kidnappings “across multiple jurisdictions,” said the US Treasury Department in a statement.
It aims to silence the Iranian regime’s perceived critics, said the US Treasury, adding that the network has also plotted operations in America.
The United Kingdom said in a separate notice that it would “sanction seven individuals and one organization, including senior Iranian officials and members of organized criminal gangs who collaborate with the regime.”
They include members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Unit 840, over reported “plots to assassinate two television presenters from news channel Iran International on UK soil,” said the British announcement.
“The Iranian regime and the criminal gangs who operate on its behalf pose an unacceptable threat to the UK’s security,” according to a statement by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
“The UK and US have sent a clear message — we will not tolerate this threat,” he added.
