The sharply worded protest came after Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Iran without evidence of encouraging anti-Semitism in Britain, saying authorities were investigating whether a foreign state was behind recent attacks on the Jewish community, including an arson incident at a former synagogue in east London.
In a press statement released Wednesday, the embassy expressed its "strong protest and serious concern" regarding recent remarks made by certain United Kingdom officials.
"The Embassy categorically rejects these baseless allegations of antisemitism directed at the Islamic Republic of Iran," the statement said, according to Press TV.
The embassy said that "guided by Islamic principles and a rich, ancient cultural heritage, the people and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran categorically reject all forms of antisemitism."
It noted that "Iran is home to one of the world's oldest Jewish communities, whose members enjoy full recognition and protection of their religious, cultural, and political rights and carry out their daily lives and religious practices with complete security and freedom."
However, the statement emphasized that "Iran's Jewish minority, alongside other Iranian civilians, has also been affected by aggressive anti-Iranian policies and measures of the United States, the Israeli regime, and the Western countries, including sanctions and war."
The embassy cited as a recent example "the bombing in Tehran that the Rafi'-Nia synagogue was completely destroyed during criminal war of aggression by the American and Israeli regimes."
Drawing a clear distinction, the statement stressed that "principled criticism of the policies and actions of the Israeli regime, including its aggressive conduct and widely reported violations of International Law and Human Rights norms particularly perpetrating genocide, should not be deliberately or mistakenly equated with antisemitism."
The embassy also raised concerns about potential "false-flag operations," requesting the British government "to address such sensitive and suspicious incidents in a fair and professional manner, and to strictly refrain from any hasty or politically motivated attribution of such incidents to third parties."
MNA
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