Britain vows more action against Iran after execution
OPPOSITION MPS DEMAND BAN ON ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARD CORPS
BOur message to that regime is clear: the world is watching you and you will be held to account, particularly by the brave Iranian people, so many of whom you are oppressing and killing.”
James Cleverly | UK Foreign Secretary
ritain yesterday vowed more reprisals against what it said was Tehran’s “weakened and isolated regime” after it executed a UKIranian dual national.
Following the killing of Alireza Akbari, the UK summoned Iran’s most senior diplomat and recalled its own ambassador.
But despite slapping sanctions on Iran’s prosecutor general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri it stopped short of opposition demands to ban the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Faced with more such demands in parliament, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he could not comment on future proscriptions.
But he said: “We do not limit ourselves to the steps that I have already announced.”
And Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman told reporters: “We are reviewing further action with our international partners.”
British MPs voted last week in favour of adding the IRGC to a list of banned terrorist organisations in the UK.
But the government is wrestling with the fate of other dual nationals held by the Islamic regime, and with the strategic aim of restoring an international nuclear pact with Iran.
Cleverly was nevertheless outspoken in denouncing Iran’s leadership after Akbari, 61, was hanged allegedly for spying on Britain’s behalf.
He told MPs that “we are witnessing the vengeful actions of a weakened and isolated regime, obsessed with suppressing its own people, debilitated by its own fear of losing power and wrecking its international reputation”.
“Our message to that regime is clear: the world is watching you and you will be held to account, particularly by the brave Iranian people, so many of whom you are oppressing and killing.”
Germany summons envoy
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock yesterday summoned Iran’s ambassador to Berlin for the second time in a week over a rash of executions by Tehran, her spokesman said.
The spokesman, Christofer Burger, confirmed the move when asked about reports the envoy had been summoned “over massive human rights violations and a wave of executions”.
Iran said Saturday it had executed a British-Iranian dual national sentenced to death for spying for the United Kingdom, drawing strong condemnation from Western governments and international rights groups.
Akbari was hanged after being convicted of “corruption on earth and harming the country’s internal and external security by passing on intelligence”, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.
Mizan said Akbari, who had been arrested more than two years ago, had been a spy for Britain’s MI6 secret intelligence agency and had received around $2 million for his services.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “appalled” by the execution.
Iran summoned the British ambassador to protest against what it described as “unconventional interventions”, after Britain said it would summon Tehran’s envoy.
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced a “heinous and barbaric act” by Tehran.
Akbari, a veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, was arrested between March 2019 and March 2020, state media said.
He was once identified by the government’s official Iran newspaper as a former deputy defence minister under Ali Shamkhani, who currently heads Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Akbari had also been an adviser to the navy commander and headed a division at the defence ministry’s research centre, state media said.