Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has summoned Iran's ambassador to the UK and announced a significant expansion of sanctions against the regime in response to its violent suppression of domestic protests.
Diplomatic Rebuke and "Total Abhorrence"
On Tuesday 13 January 2026, Ms Cooper informed the House of Commons that she had called in the Iranian ambassador based at the embassy in Knightsbridge. The move was to demand answers over what she described as "horrific reports" emerging from Iran and to underline the UK's grave concerns.
She revealed that she had spoken directly to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi the previous day, Monday. In that conversation, she conveyed the United Kingdom's "total abhorrence of the killings, the violence and the repression" perpetrated against Iranian citizens.
Ms Cooper warned MPs that existing reports of the state's violence, which suggest thousands have been killed and many more arrested, "may not reflect the severity of the situation". She expressed fear that the full scale of the horror is being underestimated, a situation exacerbated by a near-total internet shutdown imposed by Tehran since 8 January.
New Sanctions Target Key Iranian Sectors
In a direct response to the "brutal forms of repression", the Foreign Secretary announced the UK government will bring forward legislation to implement "full and further sanctions and sectoral measures".
These new restrictions will build upon existing designations against key players in Iran's economy. The expanded sanctions regime will target:
- The oil and energy sectors.
- The nuclear and financial systems.
- Further measures aimed at finance, energy, transport, and software industries seen as advancing Iran's nuclear escalation.
Ms Cooper committed to working with the European Union and other international partners to explore additional coordinated actions.
Political Pressure and International Response
The announcement faced immediate scrutiny from the Conservative opposition. Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel questioned why the Iranian ambassador had not been summoned sooner and pressed for more specific details on the sanctions.
Dame Priti challenged the government's resolve, asking: "As Iranian citizens are sacrificing their lives in the fight for their own liberation, what message of hope and reassurance does the Foreign Secretary give to those risking their lives on the streets of Iran each day?"
In her reply, Ms Cooper condemned the Iranian government for "peddling its manufactured narrative of foreign manipulation" and portraying its own protesters as criminals. She emphasised the need for a unified international front, stating: "It needs the international community to come together on this in the face of this brutality." She pledged to pursue concerted action and pressure through the United Nations and every available avenue.
The Foreign Secretary concluded by reiterating the UK's demand that Iranian authorities respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of their citizens, amidst the ongoing crackdown on activists opposed to the regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
