Iranian ambassador scolded after Metro finds Telegram account recruiting ‘martyrs’

Seyed Ali Mousavi was called in by Middle East minister Hamish Falconer over the embassy’s ‘unacceptable and inflammatory’ social media comments.

Metro reported yesterday that Iranian diplomats had called on their country’s diaspora in the UK to ‘lay down our lives’ for a new campaign to ‘defend Iranian land’.

The message, posted on their Telegram channel, directs Iranians to register their interest with the authorities and specifically references recruiting ‘children’.

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The message – uncovered by Metro – was uploaded to the Iranian embassy’s Telegram account on April 15.

The Telegram upload ends with a chilling poetic verse: ‘Let us all, one and all, give our lives in battle.

Rather than surrender our country to the enemy.’
The lines are taken from a famous sequence of patriotic poetry in Iran called the Shahnameh, or ‘Book of Kings,’ composed by the Persian poet Ferdowsi.

The Foreign Office called the post ‘completely unacceptable’ and ordered the Embassy to ‘cease any form of communications that could be interpreted as encouraging violence in the UK or internationally.’
‘The “Jan Fada” platform is intended for all Iranians who wish to support and defend their country, and it does not promote any form of hostility.

Any claims or assumptions to the contrary are simply unfounded.

Such biased judgments are made hastily and without proper understanding.’
This is a breaking news story and is being updated.

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