Majlis Ratifies Bill To Reduce Ties With UK With Strong Majority

Tehran, Nov 27, IRNA – Majlis on Sunday ratified a two-star bill to downgrade political and economic ties with Britain. The bill comes in response to a recent decision by the British government to impose sanctions on Central Bank of Iran (Bank Markazi). It received 179 positive votes from 206 parliament members present in the Sunday morning session. The bill to reduce level of ties with the UK was proposed by 20 Majlis deputies. It gives the Iranian Foreign Ministry two weeks to downgrade political ties with the UK to the level of charge d’affaires. The bill requires that the level of economic and trade ties with Britain be dropped to minimum. According to the bill, any decision to raise the level of ties with Britain will require another bill to be ratified by the Majlis. The bill, in its introduction part, underlined that the history of UK policies towards Iran in years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution has been full of treachery and crimes. It added that Britain undoubtedly had a hand in all the crimes committed by Americans in Iran even before the 1979 Revolution. The bill also wants the Foreign Ministry to adopt similar positions against any other countries which might follow the same policies as the UK adopted towards Iran. It also noted that Iran regarded the UK as a major element behind anti-Iran human rights resolutions, barring Iran from gaining access to its inalienable peaceful nuclear rights, excluding the terrorist Mojahedeen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from the list of terrorist groups and assisting Saddam Hussein during the imposed war against Iran./end