Iran to Britain: Beware of hostilities

A senior Iranian lawmaker says Iran’s Majlis will take more serious decisions regarding the UK, if London persists with its hostile policies towards the Islamic Republic.

In an open session of Majlis on Sunday, Iranian lawmakers passed a double-urgency bill aimed at downgrading Tehran-London diplomatic ties to the level of charge d’affaires and limiting all economic and cultural collaborations to a minimum.

“The administration of this country (UK) has a thick record of aggressive measures against the Iranian nation and imposing sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran is a small link in this chain,” head of the Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Sunday.

The Iranian lawmakers offered the bill in response to the UK’s recent decision to impose sanctions against the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, over the allegation that Tehran’s nuclear program may consist of a covert military agenda.

UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne declared on November 21 that London was terminating all contacts between the British financial system and the entire Iranian banking system. Iranian financial authorities say such contacts had been severed a long time ago and that the announcement is purely political and will in no way impact Iran’s financial dealings.

The Iranian lawmaker went on to say that the British administration had played a destructive role in inciting unrest in Iran following the 2009 presidential elections with the help of its embassy in Tehran.

“Today, Iran’s Majlis will firmly counter the policies of foreign countries that are in conflict with our national interests,” Boroujerdi stressed.

On November 22, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani announced that Tehran would review its relations with European countries, which have unilaterally imposed sanctions on Iran.

The sanctions were imposed after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors adopted a US-engineered resolution against Iran’s nuclear program on November 18 that was poorly supported by its members and strongly refuted by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member nations.

The resolution failed in its attempt to report Iran to the UN Security Council or in setting a deadline for Tehran to comply.

Iran has dismissed the report as “unbalanced, unprofessional,” and prepared with political motives and under extreme pressure by the United States.