Top Commander Mocks at Britain’s Return to Region as “Joke of The Year”

“In our view, there is no new compared with the past and Britain’s (efforts to) return to the region as a power is more like humor and joke of the year,” General Jazzayeri said in an interview with Iran-based Arabic-language al-Alam news website on Tuesday.

Noting that the British sometimes view themselves as the Great Britain, he said, “This is while the Great Britain died long years ago and its ashes have also gone with the wind.”

General Jazzayeri called on the British and the Europeans to adopt a realistic view, and said, “You need to rest assured that the public opinion’s insight has changed a lot in the region and people would never allow the British or others to revive their hegemony over the region.”

Addressing a Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) meeting in Bahrain last Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May claimed that “we must… work together to push back against Iran’s aggressive regional actions”.

The Iranian first vice-president blasted her remarks on Saturday, and said, “She was invited to the meeting to speak against Iran (but) these acts humiliated those countries (the Persian Gulf Arab littoral states).”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is a great country in the region and no one can confront it with such remarks,” he said, adding that no country can undermine Iran’s security and stability.

Also on Saturday, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned British Ambassador to Tehran Nicholas Hopton over May’s remarks.

“The foreign ministry’s deputy director general for Western Europe summoned (UK envoy) Hopton on Saturday to convey the strong protest of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the undigested statements made by that country’s prime minister,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.

Qassemi noted that the foreign ministry official told Hopton that the “irresponsible, provocative and divisive statements by Ms. Theresa May in that meeting are unacceptable and doomed and it is strongly expected that such unacceptable statements are not made in future”.

The Iranian diplomat also told the British ambassador that “such moves run counter to the stated expansion of ties and will further damage the two countries’ relations.”

“The regional policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on establishing peace, stability and security on the basis of campaign against terrorism, while some regional countries are clearly pursuing the policy of supporting terrorism and this reality has been ignored by the British officials and you premier, which is a source of regret and surprise,” Qassemi quoted the Iranian diplomat as telling Hopton.