Foreign Office summons Iranian ambassador following protests against the regime

Evening Standard

Yvette Cooper has summoned the Iranian ambassador over the crackdown on protests in the country, as the Foreign Secretary announced new sanctions on the regime.Ms Cooper told the Commons reports on the violence carried out by the Iranian government against protesters in recent weeks may not reflect the severity of the situation, and they could be far worse.

Transcript

00:00and today as the further reports have come through the Minister for the Middle East at

00:17my instruction has summoned the Iranian ambassador to underline the gravity of this moment and to

00:23call Iran to answer for the horrific reports that we are hearing but this latest conduct by the

00:31Iranian regime is no aberration it is no outlier rather it is all too in keeping with the fundamental

00:37nature and track record of this regime consistent with its previous conduct towards its own people

00:42as we saw during the lethal repression of protesters led by Iranian women following the death in custody

00:49of Masa Amini at the hands of Iran's so-called morality police or consistent with its destabilizing

00:57actions towards its neighbors in the region as we have seen in its backing of terrorist and extremist

01:02proxies of Hezbollah of Hamas of the Houthis and militia groups in Iraq and Syria and from Iran's

01:09barrage of missile attacks on Israel weapons inspectors still have not been given access

01:14and far from changing their approach we have seen instead a reversion to the most brutal forms of

01:20repression on their own streets as a result I can confirm the UK will bring forward legislation

01:26to implement full and further sanctions and sectoral measures the UK has already designated key players

01:34in Iran's oil energy nuclear and financial systems further measures will target finance energy transport

01:40software and other significant industries which are advancing Iranian nuclear escalation and we

01:46will we will work further with the EU and other partners to explore what additional measures now

01:52might now be needed in response to developments

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