Iran summons British envoy over his social media post calling for release of detained journalists

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned Britain’s envoy to Tehran to protest his post on social media calling for the government to release all people ″arbitrarily detained” in Iran, including journalists. The state-run news agency reported on Wednesday that Ambassador Simon Shercliff was summoned on Tuesday over what the ministry described as “interfering remarks” on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Iran has detained nearly 20,000 people over nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman held by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code. Iranian authorities are known to have detained at least 95 journalists in the wake of the protests following Amini’s death.