Iran summons UK ambassador over stabbing allegation

Iran has summoned the British ambassador to Tehran to protest what it called "baseless accusations", state media said on Thursday, after a London court jailed two people for a knife attack it said was carried out at Iran's behest.

"Following the repetition of false and baseless accusations by British officials against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the country's ambassador in Tehran was summoned to the ministry, and the Islamic Republic of Iran's protest against the British government's inappropriate approach towards the Iranian nation was conveyed to him," the official IRNA news agency reported.

Two Romanians, convicted of a 2024 knife attack on an Iranian journalist outside his London home "on behalf of" Iran, were sentenced last week to 12 and eight years in prison respectively.

At the sentencing, the judge said the evidence "overwhelmingly points" to the attack on Pouria Zeraati, a news presenter for Persian-language outlet Iran International, having been carried out on behalf of the Iranian government.

British security minister Angela Eagle said following the sentencing that the "abhorrent attack" was "carried out on behalf of Iran" and "we will continue to hold the regime to account".

IRNA said Tehran told the British ambassador that the country's "continued hosting of terrorist channels that are financed and directed by the apartheid and fake Israeli regime, and whose main role is to encourage violence and terrorism, violates the British government's international legal obligations to refrain from supporting terrorism and must be stopped as soon as possible".

Iran International, a private broadcaster based in a heavily secured building in west London, was labelled a terrorist organisation by Tehran in 2022 along with the BBC's Persian-language channel.

Reporting by AFP