As smartly dressed guests, including UK civil servants, gathered at the London event, embassy officials hailed Iran’s “remarkable accomplishments” in spite of “unjust” Western sanctions. Video footage shows attendees standing in silence for a rendition of Iran’s national anthem.
On the same day as the event, February 12th, the US-based group Human Rights Activists News Agency announced that at least 7,000 people had been killed in Iran, including 219 children. Anti-regime campaigners previously said up to 30,000 protesters may have been murdered.
Reports had reached the West of injured protesters being killed in hospital by the regime’s feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and people on the streets being shot in the head and neck at close range.
Demonstrators said the drains of Tehran ran crimson with the blood of the dead.
Back in London, Seyed Ali Mousavi, Iran’s ambassador to the UK, gave a speech praising the Iranian regime and attacking Western sanctions on Tehran.
“For nearly half a century, Iran has faced relentless pressure; from the eight-year imposed war and severe sanctions to acts of sabotage and terrorism,” he said.
“Nevertheless, by relying on domestic capabilities, national cohesion and empowered human resources, it has achieved significant progress.”
A video released by the embassy showed guests mingling with regime officials just a fortnight before the outbreak of war between Iran, and the United States and Israel.
A large banner can be seen adorned with pictures of Ali Khamenei, the former Iranian supreme leader who was later killed by US-Israeli strikes, and Ruhollah Khomeini, his predecessor.
Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said it was “disgraceful” for officials to celebrate the creation of a regime that had “bathed the streets of cities across Iran in the blood of a generation of freedom fighters”....<<<Read More>>>...
