RFL/RE – The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador in Tehran because of recent comments by British Prime Minister Theresa May about Iran.
Ambassador Nicholas Hopton was summoned for talks in Tehran on December 10 to explain May’s comments at a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Bahrain on December 7, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported.
Iran state television said Hopton was told Tehran was protesting against “interference” after May said Britain would help counter Iranian influence in the region.
It added that Hopton was told that May’s comments were “irresponsible, provocative, and divisive.”
The two-day summit in Bahrain of the regional bloc of Western-allied countries included officials from Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
British Prime Minister Theresa May in Bahrain on December 7
May reportedly said that Britain and the (Persian) Gulf countries must “work together to push back against Iran’s aggressive regional actions, whether in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, or in the Gulf itself.”
Based on reporting by AP, Iranian media, and The Daily Mail