Iran’s London embassy urges Iranians in Britain to recruit their children as martyrs

From GB News, Metro and the Jerusalem Post. Thanks to RH for drawing my attention to this.

The Iranian embassy in London is recruiting expats to become martyrs and ‘sacrifice their lives for the Homeland’, Iranian diplomats 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’.

“All brave and distinguished children of Iran are invited to participate consciously and register in this campaign, adding another golden page to the book of honours of this ancient land and demonstrating that their hearts are bound to the dignity and greatness of their homeland. . .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.

Metro has confirmed this translation with Saleed Talajooy, senior lecturer in Persian Studies at St Andrews University.

Narguess Farzad, senior lecturer in Persian Studies at SOAS University, translated the verse: ‘Better that we all of us lay down our lives, than surrender our country to the foe.’

The Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel called for the Home Office and police to intervene in response to the post. She said it was “appalling” that Iran was trying to use Britain as a “recruiting ground”. “Keir Starmer should show some backbone and summon the Iranian ambassador to explain himself.”

The Telegram post has close to 400 heart reactions, as well as 27 thumbs up reactions and 26 prayer emojis.

The United Kingdom has summoned Iran’s ambassador to London over what the government described as the Iranian embassy’s “unacceptable and inflammatory” comments on social media.

Britain’s minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, made clear that the embassy “must cease any form of communications that could be interpreted as encouraging violence in the UK or internationally,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

The British government did not specify which of the embassy’s social media comments it was referring to. Iranian officials in Tehran could not be immediately reached for comment by the Jerusalem Post. A spokesperson for the Iranian Embassy told Metro: ‘Iranians around the world have always cared deeply about their homeland and the protection of its territorial integrity and they always will.
Haleh Blake, co-founder of the campaign group United4Mahsa, said the post showed the Iranian regime was “running out of existing human resources” and had turned to social media. She added: “This should be yet another clear alarm to Keir Starmer and the Labour Government to not hold any negotiations with the Islamic Republic’s regime and proceed with the proscription of the IRGC, the entity that is currently running the country.”

Sir Keir Starmer vowed on Friday to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group in the next parliamentary session.