The British Queen's decision for granting knighthood to her country's envoy to Tehran was an insult to the Iranian nation and further unveiled the British government's evil nature, said an Iranian legislator.
Speaking to FNA here on Sunday, Vice-Chairman of Iran-Britain friendship group at the Iranian parliament Mousa Qazanfar-Abadi reminded the interfering and arrogant remarks uttered by British Ambassador to Iran Simon Gas and his subsequent inclusion in the New Year's honors list by the British Queen, and said, "This action showed nothing but the colonialist nature of the British."
"This action further revealed London's criminal and hostile approach to Iran," he said, and continued, "The Iranian nation is entitled to feel hatred for the hypocritical and divisive actions of Britain since this country is only seeking to hatch plots and conspiracies against Iran."
The lawmaker lashed out at Queen Elizabeth for granting knighthood to Gass, and reiterated, "This action revealed the evil face of Britain more than before."
After Gass embarked on uttering bold remarks about the human rights conditions in Iran last month, Iran protested at the British envoy's meddlesome statements and measures, but London voiced all-out support for Gass and the British Queen even honored Gass with a knighthood title for his services to Britain.
Gass said in a memo published by the British Embassy in Tehran on December 9, "Today, International Human Rights Day is highlighting the cases of those people around the world who stand up for the rights of others - the lawyers, journalists and NGO workers who place themselves at risk to defend their countrymen."
"Nowhere are they under greater threat than in Iran. Since last year human rights defenders have been harassed and imprisoned," the British envoy added.
Simon Gass has been a major factor in pushing the Iranian lawmakers to draft a bill on lowering or cutting ties with Britain, and Chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Saturday that the bill is under study at the parliament.
The Iranian lawmakers initially started drafting a bill, not to cut, but to downgrade ties with London after Britain's direct involvement in stirring post-election unrests in Iran in 2009.
Following Britain's support for a group of wild demonstrators who disrespected Islamic sanctities and damaged private and public amenities and properties in Tehran on December 27, 2009, members of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission drafted the bill.
The British government's blatant stance and repeated remarks in support of the last year unrests inside Iran and London's espionage operations and financial and media support for the opposition groups are among the reasons mentioned in the bill for cutting ties with Britain.
But the recent remarks by the British envoy pushed the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission to accelerate approval of the bill, which now necessitates the government to fully cut Tehran's relations with Britain.
Later, the bill was submitted to the parliament's presiding board for a final discussion and approval by all parliament members.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani underlined that the country's legislative body would seriously pursue ratification of the bill to reciprocate Britain's inimical approach towards Iran in recent years.
"As regards the British government's positions on Iran in recent times, specially the last one year, the parliament is necessitated to give a serious response (to London)," Larijani said in December.
Iran has repeatedly accused the West of stoking post-election unrests, singling out Britain and the US for meddling. Tehran expelled two British diplomats and arrested a number of local staffs of the British embassy in Tehran after documents and evidence substantiated London's interfering role in stirring post-election riots in Iran.
In one of the court hearing sessions, British embassy's local staff in Tehran Hossein Rassam, who was charged with spying, admitted cultivating networks of contacts in the opposition movement using a £300,000 budget.
Rassam also confessed that the local staff of the embassy had attended protests against the June's presidential election results along with two British diplomats, named in court as Tom Burn and Paul Blemey, and that he had attended meetings with the defeated opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, alongside Burn.
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