The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has summoned the Iranian Embassy’s Chargé d’Affaires in London, Ali Nasimfar, after the sentencing of two Romanian nationals over the March 2024 attack on Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati. According to the government statement, the summons was made on the Foreign Secretary’s instruction and carried out by the Minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer. In diplomatic practice, a summons is a formal protest delivered directly to a foreign mission. By using that route, ministers are signalling that the case is being treated as a matter of interstate conduct as well as criminal wrongdoing.
The immediate trigger was the sentencing of two Romanian nationals for their role in the attack. The FCDO said the judge concluded that the assault was carried out in the interests of, and on behalf of, the Iranian state. That finding is the central point in the government’s public account. It moves the case beyond a serious assault on an individual and into the category of state-linked activity on UK soil.
The statement also highlights the judge’s finding that one defendant, George Stana, met the foreign power condition under the National Security Act 2023. In the government’s summary of the ruling, the court found that he knew, or ought reasonably to have known, of the connection to Iran. For policy readers, that is the legal point to watch. The foreign power condition is a key test within the Act, and the FCDO is using this case to show that the statute forms part of the UK’s response to hostile state activity.
The FCDO said the judgment fits what it described as a longstanding pattern of hostile activity by Iranian intelligence services in the United Kingdom. It added that such conduct seeks to undermine UK sovereignty and security and is "completely unacceptable". That wording places the government’s response in the language of national security and territorial integrity. This is not being framed as a narrow diplomatic disagreement, but as conduct that ministers say cuts across the state’s duty to protect people within the UK.
The statement also ties the case to media freedom and freedom of expression. The FCDO said both remain top priorities alongside national security, and said the government will take whatever measures are necessary to protect the public and those living and working in the country. For journalists, publishers and diaspora communities, the message is clear. Where violence against a reporter is linked to a foreign state, the government intends to treat it as both a public protection issue and a challenge to open expression in the UK.
The statement is therefore performing several functions at once. It records a formal diplomatic protest, anchors that protest in a criminal judgment, and points directly to the National Security Act 2023 as part of the legal context. For readers trying to decode Whitehall language, the practical meaning is straightforward: ministers are treating the Zeraati attack as more than an isolated assault. On the government’s account, it is a case about sovereignty, state-linked coercion and the safety of those who report and speak freely from the United Kingdom.