Blinken vows to hold Tehran accountable (Mandel Negan / AFP)
The US Secretary of State said, Anthony BlinkenTuesday, the United States is dismayed execution Iran to Alireza Akbari, pledging that no violations committed by Tehran in its crackdown on large-scale demonstrations will go unpunished.
“We were as appalled by Mr. Akbari’s execution as we were by everything we’ve seen on the streets of Iran over the past months since these protests began: mass arrests, sham trials, executions, and the use of sexual violence as a tool to suppress protests,” Blinken told a news conference.
“These violations will not pass without consequences. Together with many other countries, we are pursuing a variety of unilateral and multilateral measures using UN mechanisms to seek to hold Iran accountable,” he added.
Akbari, 61, a British-Iranian who previously served as Iran’s deputy defense minister, has been sentenced to death on charges of spying for Britain.
London says the charges against him are politically motivated and has repeatedly called for his release. Following the execution, sanctions were imposed on Iran’s public prosecutor.
The execution drew widespread condemnation, and looks set to further deteriorate Iran’s strained relations with the West, which have worsened since talks to revive Iran arrived. nuclear deal The agreement reached a dead end in 2015, after Tehran launched a bloody crackdown on protesters last year.
At the same press conference, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that his country would not be limited to the response it had already announced, but he refused to go into more details of what it might do.
(Reuters, The New Arab)
