UK lawmaker encourages Westerners to leave Iran after arrest of British dual citizens

A UK lawmaker has said she would "absolutely be leaving" Iran were she a British foreign national there, following the arrests of seven people with links to Britain, including some dual nationals, by the country's Revolutionary Guards.

A statement published by Iranian state media alleged those arrested were "main leaders of the recent protests related to the UK".

"This is industrialised taking of state hostages. This is what Iran does now," said Alicia Kearns, an MP from the ruling Conservative Party and chair of the House of Commons' foreign affairs select committee.

The UK foreign ministry said it was seeking further information from Iranian authorities on reports that British-Iranian dual nationals had been arrested in Iran.

"Iran has shown that it will happily arrest anyone with dual citizenship," Kearns told BBC Radio 4.

"If I was a British foreign national in Iran I would absolutely be leaving because the evidence is they will use them in any game of chess they can and use brutal repression.

"I would encourage anyone from the West to leave as safely as they can."

Kearns said those arrested were framed as being linked to Britain, as the Islamic Republic seeks to point the finger at the West and especially the UK for orchestrating the demonstrations Iran is facing.

She said: "They will never admit this is because of a brutal, corrupt and oppressive regime."

Asked by a reporter to comment on the announcement in Tehran of the arrest of seven people linked to Britain, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani on Monday said: "Some countries, especially the one you mentioned, had an unconstructive role regarding the recent developments in Iran.

"Their role was totally destructive and incited the riots."

The reported arrests follow protests triggered by the 16 September death in detention of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian who was arrested for allegedly wearing "inappropriate attire" under Iran's strict religious dress code for women.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Featured image credit: "Official portrait for Alicia Kearns (3:2 portrait)" by UK Parliament is licensed under CC BY 3.0.