Iran summons UK ambassador to protest sanctions amid protests

ANKARA (AA) – Iran has summoned British Ambassador Simon Shercliff to protest sanctions imposed on the country’s morality police.

A Foreign Ministry statement said it conveyed Iran’s strong protest over the “arbitrary” and “baseless” sanctions and the UK interference in Iran’s internal affairs, the state news agency IRNA reported.

Tehran said it maintains the right to reciprocate London’s move.

On Monday, Britain imposed sanctions against senior Iranian security officials and a police unit over crackdown on protests triggered by the death of an Iranian woman in police custody.

Mahsa Amini, 22, died in mysterious circumstances last month after being detained for wearing "inappropriate dress" by the country's morality police.

The angry protests, which first broke out in Amini's hometown of Sanandaj in western Iran, later spread to all major Iranian cities, including Tehran, resulting in many casualties.

The government is yet to announce the exact figure, but independent rights groups have put the casualty toll at more than 100.

An Iranian government report into Amini’s death blamed her demise for multiple organ failure, not physical violence, but her family rejected the findings.

The incident sent shockwaves across the world, with many Western governments issuing strongly-worded statements of condemnation, which didn't go well with the Iranian government.

* Salma Ali contributed to this story