Embassy Denounces UK Failure to Protect Voters

Date: 25 June 2021 - 21:41

News ID: ۹۱۷۰۵

LONDON (Dispatches) -- Iran’s embassy in London on Thursday vehemently criticized the British police’s utter failure to provide security for the Islamic Republic’s polling stations across the UK during the 18 June presidential election.
“The embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in London wrote a note to the British Foreign Secretary to strongly protest the failure of the British police to secure polling stations in the presidential election on Friday, [28 June,] and the absence of support and actions to prevent violence perpetrated against Iranian voters in some cities, including Birmingham,” Mahdi Husseini Matin, the deputy head of Iran’s mission to the UK, tweeted.
Husseini Matin said the Iranian mission asked the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to identify and bring charges against the perpetrators and compensate for the harm inflicted on the injured and the loss imposed on Iran’s diplomatic missions.
A woman was injured in Birmingham when attackers targeted her merely for trying to exercise her right to vote in the Iranian presidential election.
Husseini Matin posted a video of the assault, which showed “false claimants of democracy who have a history of conducting terrorist attacks and links to foreigners” were behind the attack.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador to strongly protest the “riotous and terrorist” acts against Iranian expatriates in the UK who wanted to cast their ballots.
“Democracy will be realized at the ballot boxes and not in the moves of a few rioters on the streets,” Foreign Ministry spokesman

Saeed Khatibzadeh said last Saturday.
Three people have reportedly been arrested after the Birmingham attack, with the Iranian embassy in London saying it will seriously pursue the case.
The Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights censured the Commonwealth member states such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand for failing to provide security for Iranians who wanted to vote in the presidential election at the embassies of their host countries.
Anti-Iran groups led a campaign of intimidation and bullying to force potential voters not the take part in the election. Nonetheless, nearly 49% of eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots in an election that catapulted Ebrahim Raisi to presidency with over 18 million or 62% of the votes.