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Britain deserves punch in the mouth: Iranian foreign minister | The Iranian government has blamed Britain for the bloody
protests sweeping across the country, saying that London deserved a 'punch in the mouth' for its role as the 'chief culprit' behind the ongoing turmoil. "Britain
will receive a punch on the mouth if it does not stop its nonsense," The Independent
quoted Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, as saying. Iranian anger had
been fuelled by Foreign Secretary David Miliband's condemnation of the crackdown.
The British ambassador to Tehran was summoned to the foreign ministry to answer
charges of interfering in the internal affairs of Iran. Iran's Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei further upped the ante, branding senior opposition members
"enemies of God" who deserved to be executed. "Those who are behind the current
sedition in the country ... are mohareb [enemies of God] and the law is very clear
about punishment of a mohareb," he said. Meanwhile, Iranian police has told leading
opposition members that safety could no longer be guaranteed once they are outside
their homes. Among those to receive the warning was Mehdi Karroubi, whose son
said that his father was effectively under "house arrest". On Tuesday, Mousavi's
brother-in-law, Shapour Kazemi, was detained, and Shirin Ebadi, the human rights
lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, said that her sister had been arrested
in an attempt to silence her. "This arrest is illegal because my sister is a dentist,
she is not in any way active in human rights or politics ... and she didn't participate
in any protests. She is detained for the sake of me," Ebadi told French radio.
The opposition website Jaras estimated that more than 900 people had been arrested
in marches that began following the death of the senior dissident cleric, Grand
Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri on December 19. |
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