Iran jibe draws UK envoy's ire
Source: Agencies |
August 13, 2010, Friday
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BRITAIN'S ambassador to Iran has issued a rare rebuke to an attack from an Iranian official, criticizing the country's vice president after he called British people idiots.
The Foreign Office in London said yesterday that ambassador Simon Gass had written a blog post sharply criticizing Mohammad Reza Rahimi, after the ministry decided his comments about the UK public were so offensive they merited a response.
In a speech on Monday, Rahimi said Britons were "a bunch of idiots ruled by mafia," and criticized new Prime Minister David Cameron's inexperience, claiming "the young lad in charge now is even more stupid than his predecessor."
Though British officials usually ignore the frequent criticisms made by Iranian officials of the United Kingdom government, diplomats decided the derogatory comments about the British public could not be allowed to pass.
"When a very senior political figure, representing the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, makes insulting comments about an entire people, it reflects badly on the speaker," Gass wrote, in a blog posting in Farsi on the foreign ministry's website.
"Claiming that Britons are not humans and referring to them as 'weak-minded' is both an affront to human dignity and absurd: Britain's contribution to the modern world through invention, culture, values and respect for individual rights is well documented and held globally in high regard," Gass wrote.
Gass, ambassador in Tehran since 2009, said if a British minister had made similar remarks about the people of Iran, "the response amongst Iranians both here and abroad would have been one of outrage, and rightly so."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has previously described British leaders as a "bunch of politically retarded people."
The Foreign Office in London said yesterday that ambassador Simon Gass had written a blog post sharply criticizing Mohammad Reza Rahimi, after the ministry decided his comments about the UK public were so offensive they merited a response.
In a speech on Monday, Rahimi said Britons were "a bunch of idiots ruled by mafia," and criticized new Prime Minister David Cameron's inexperience, claiming "the young lad in charge now is even more stupid than his predecessor."
Though British officials usually ignore the frequent criticisms made by Iranian officials of the United Kingdom government, diplomats decided the derogatory comments about the British public could not be allowed to pass.
"When a very senior political figure, representing the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, makes insulting comments about an entire people, it reflects badly on the speaker," Gass wrote, in a blog posting in Farsi on the foreign ministry's website.
"Claiming that Britons are not humans and referring to them as 'weak-minded' is both an affront to human dignity and absurd: Britain's contribution to the modern world through invention, culture, values and respect for individual rights is well documented and held globally in high regard," Gass wrote.
Gass, ambassador in Tehran since 2009, said if a British minister had made similar remarks about the people of Iran, "the response amongst Iranians both here and abroad would have been one of outrage, and rightly so."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has previously described British leaders as a "bunch of politically retarded people."
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