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Tehran Protests May’s Gulf Summit Remarks Labeling Them ‘Provocative’ | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A view shows Tehran’s skyline at night with the Milad tower, the sixth tallest tower in the world, Iran May 3, 2016. REUTERS/Marius Bosch


Iran called in the British ambassador on Saturday protesting against recent remarks by Prime Minister Theresa May who accused Tehran of “aggressive regional actions” in a speech to a Gulf Arab summit.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said the move was prompted by May’s “irresponsible, provocative and divisive remarks” at the summit in Bahrain on Wednesday, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

Iran and most Gulf states are on opposite sides in Middle East conflicts, with the Iran an ally of regime head Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war and of the armed Houthi insurgency overruling constitutional legitimacy in Yemen.

May told the Gulf Arab leaders that “we must also work together to push back against Iran’s aggressive regional actions, whether in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria or in the Gulf itself”.

Britain and Iran exchanged ambassadors in September, more than a year after Britain reopened its Tehran embassy, which was closed for nearly four years after it was stormed by protesters.