TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on Sunday told his visiting British counterpart to avoid interfering in Iran's internal affairs by supporting "rioters" in the Islamic republic.
During a joint press conference with visiting Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Kharrazi said Iran's government was "deeply unsatisfied" with remarks by British Prime Minister Tony Blair supporting Iranians who took to the streets earlier this month to voice their anger at hardliners in the Iranian regime.
"I would expect him (Blair) to make a distinction between peaceful students, who naturally have a right to demonstrate, and vandals who destroy public property," Kharrazi said, before heaping praise on the conduct of Iran's security forces.
"There were no fatalities during the rioting, which shows the capabilities of police and our respect for demonstrations," he asserted. "Only 50 students are now in prison. Most of those in prison are rioters, and nobody can support them, not even Jack Straw or Tony Blair."
In response, Straw said Blair's remarks backing the demonstrators -- which sparked Iran to summon the British ambassador to Tehran for a complaint -- had been misinterpreted.
"The United Kingdom's position is to support the right of free and peaceful assembly," he said, asserting that Blair's comment was "not in any sense a gratuitous act of interference in Iran's affairs."
From June 10-20, Iran was gripped by nightly student-led demonstrations, that were marked by the chanting of virulent slogans targetting the ruling clerics and violent clashes between protestors and hardline pro-regime vigilante groups.
Scores of people were seriously injured, and one protestor was killed in uncertain circumstances in the southern city of Shiraz. On Friday, a judiciary official said 4,000 people were arrested during the unrest, of whom 2,000 were still being held.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the United States of instigating the protests.
