Foreign Office summons Iran’s ambassador

diplomacy

Foreign Office summons Iran’s ambassador

After the serious unrest in Iran, the Foreign Office summoned the ambassador. The background to this is numerous deaths and arrests during the protests.

In view of the extremely harsh crackdown by Iranian government forces against demonstrators, the Foreign Office has summoned the country’s ambassador. The brutality of the regime was shocking, the ministry said on the X platform. “We urge Iran to end the violence against its own citizens and respect their rights.”

The formal summons of an ambassador is considered a strong diplomatic tool with which the government of the host country signals a clear dissatisfaction. France, Denmark and Great Britain, among others, summoned the Iranian ambassadors to their countries.

Triggered by a severe economic crisis, Iranians have been demonstrating across the country for more than two weeks against the authoritarian system of rule of the Islamic Republic. There were violent riots and serious unrest in cities. These are the most serious protests in years. Many demonstrators have been killed.

The human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), based in Oslo, puts the number of deaths since the protests broke out at the end of December at at least 648. The human rights network HRANA, based in the USA, also spoke of almost 650 deaths. These include 505 demonstrators – including nine children – and 133 military and police officers.

According to some estimates, more than 6,000 people may have been killed, IHRNGO wrote on X. According to some estimates, the number of arrests exceeds 10,000. The information cannot currently be independently verified.

Iran’s judiciary brought the first protest participants to justice. The public prosecutor’s office in Tehran has filed charges against several detainees, the Iranian news agency Tasnim reported. Particularly serious cases of “rioters” would be given priority and treated separately. This also includes the accusation of “waging war against God” – an offense that can be punished with the death penalty under Islamic law in Iran. Iran’s justice chief called for retribution for security forces and police officers killed during the protests on Monday.

In view of the mass protests, US President Donald Trump suspended all talks with the leadership in Tehran until further notice and promised support for the demonstrators. “Iranian patriots, keep protesting! Take over your institutions!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. He canceled all meetings with Iranian government officials until the “senseless killing of demonstrators stops.” “You will pay a heavy price,” Trump wrote, announcing that help was on the way. What exactly he meant by that was initially unclear.