News / Politics

Iran summons Swiss envoy over 'meddlesome' US remarks

Monday, 19 June 2017 4:37 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 19 June 2017 6:11 PM ]

The file photo shows the Iranian Foreign Ministry's building in the capital, Tehran.

Iran has summoned the Swiss charge d’affaires to Tehran to protest at the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent "meddlesome" remarks against the Islamic Republic, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman says.

In a meeting on Monday, the director general for the Americas at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Mohammad Keshavarz-Zadeh, handed over a strongly-worded official letter of protest to the Swiss envoy, who represents the US interests in Tehran, Bahram Qassemi said.

He added that Keshavarz-Zadeh denounced the US secretary of state’s “injudicious” remarks and described them as “clear intervention in Iran’s internal affairs.”

Qassemi said the Iranian official had emphasized that Tillerson’s remarks were against the principles of international law and the international commitments of the US administration, including the United Nations Charter.

Keshavarz-Zadeh noted that the US administration was responsible for such comments and must be held accountable in this regard.

The Swiss envoy, for his part, said he would convey the Islamic Republic’s message to the US administration and inform the Iranian government of the results as soon as possible.

The US secretary of state told the House Foreign Relations Committee on June 14 that the Iranian government “continues activities and interventions that destabilize the Middle East.” He added that Washington’s policy towards Iran was based on supporting internal forces who could bring about peaceful change.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that all efforts made by the US to change the Iranian government have ended up in failure over the past decades.

“This revolution and the [Islamic] establishment, which came about [in Iran], have been faced with serious hostilities since their inception,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, noting that the United States had always sought to bring about “regime change” in Iran, but had always failed in its efforts to do so.

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