Iran warns UK over hostile acts, identifies Iran International as ‘terrorist organization’

Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib has said the UK will pay the price of its attempts to destabilize Iran, adding that the country’s security community now recognizes the so-called Iran International channel based in London as a terrorist organization.

In remarks on Tuesday, Khatib also said that the US, Britain, the Israeli regime and Saudi Arabia played an overt role in the recent riots in several Iranian cities, which erupted following the death of a young Iranian woman in hospital on September 16, three days after she collapsed in a police station in the capital Tehran.

“We will never support terrorist and destabilizing acts in other countries as the UK does, but we also will not be committed to preventing the occurrence of insecurity in such countries,” he said.

He then hastened to warn that London will pay the price of acting to make the great country of Iran insecure.

Referring to the so-called Iran International TV, he said the “elements of that network” will be pursued by the Intelligence Ministry.

“From now on, any kind of connection with this terrorist organization will be considered as entering the terrorist domain and threatening the country’s national security,” he said.

Iran has been at the epicenter of violent unrest since the controversial death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested for improper hijab. Weeks into the unrest, an investigation ordered by President Ebrahim Raeisi concluded that Amini’s death was caused by an illness rather than alleged beatings by the police.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic has strongly censured several countries for provoking the riots through their spy agencies and propaganda apparatus. London, in particular, hosts several anti-Iran networks, including the Iran International, Manoto, and the BBC Persian.

Iran’s top intelligence bodies, namely the Intelligence Ministry and the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), also issued a statement last month, casting light on the role of foreign spy agencies in the unrest. They concluded that the CIA played the primary role while closely cooperating with the spy services of the UK, the Israeli regime, and Saudi Arabia.

Undoubtedly, Khatib said, the biggest “influence operation” against a country in the world was carried out against Iran through hybrid operations by the US, the UK, the Israeli regime, and Saudi Arabia.

“In recent events, the hand of the Zionist regime was more evident in implementation; the hand of the UK in propaganda, and the hand of the Saudi regime in funding,” he explained.

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www.presstv.ir