Iran summons UK ambassador over London stabbing case

Iran summoned the British ambassador in Tehran to protest what it called "baseless accusations" after a London court jailed two people over a knife attack on an Iranian journalist.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said Thursday that Tehran conveyed its protest over what it called the British government's "inappropriate approach" toward Iran.

Two Romanians convicted of a 2024 knife attack on Pouria Zeraati, a presenter for the Persian-language outlet Iran International, were sentenced last week to 12 and eight years in prison.

At sentencing, the judge said the evidence "overwhelmingly points" to the attack outside Zeraati's London home having been carried out on behalf of the Iranian government.

British security minister Angela Eagle said after the sentencing that the attack was carried out on behalf of Iran and that Britain would continue to hold the regime to account.

IRNA said Iran told the British ambassador that Britain was continuing to host channels Tehran described as terrorist channels financed and directed by Israel. Iran International, a private broadcaster based in west London, was labelled a terrorist organisation by Tehran in 2022, along with the BBC's Persian-language channel.