Tehran: Iran summoned UK's envoy in Tehran on Wednesday to dissent from London's allegation that the Iran administration threatened UK-based journalists, Agence France-Presse reported citing Iran's state media.
This was after the UK summoned Iran's charge d'affaires in London, Mehdi Hosseini Matin, to hear the British's protest on the alleged threats that made Persian-language TV network Iran International announce its decision to relocate from London last week.
Iran's official, the IRNA news agency, reported that the foreign ministry of Iran summoned temporary charge d'affaires of the UK in Tehran, Isabelle Marsh, to protest the baseless accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
On Saturday, Iran International announced that it was forced to shut down its London TV Studios after the UK police's advice, and it had switched to 24-hour broadcasting from Washington.
When the anti-government protests broke out in Iran five months ago, Iran International provided extensive coverage of it. The station said its senior journalists received death threats for their reporting.
On Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that he was appalled by Tehran issuing relentless threats to the lives of UK-based journalists. He announced then that I summoned Iran's envoy to clearly state that such threats cannot be tolerated.
However, the Iranian foreign ministry said that Cleverly's comments were part of Britain's "Iranophobic policy". It called for the stop of "such hostile approach".
Iran-UK relations are at a low after London's reaction to the anti-government protests in Iran over journalist Mahsa Amini's death. She was accused of breaching Iran's dress code for women and died after an alleged heart attack while in police custody.