LONDON, July 19: Britain protested furiously on Tuesday to Iran over comments by a leading Iranian politician that the London bombings might have been deliberately carried out by the British government.

One possible reason for the July 7 attacks ‘is that the British government itself created this situation’, Ahmad Janati, who chairs the powerful Guardians Council, said on Friday.

“These allegations are insulting and ridiculous,” a spokesman for the Foreign Office in London said.

“It is a shame that a recent official letter of condolence over the bombings from the Iranian embassy in London has been followed by such irresponsible statements,” the spokesman said.

The Foreign Office had “protested strongly” to the Iranian ambassador, he added.

Ahmad Janati suggested in his sermon that the British government might have carried out the bombings, and that the United States also perpetrated the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, to justify foreign wars.

“To understand who is behind these events, you need to look at who profits from them,” he said.

“It’s the Americans who profited from September 11 and today it’s the British who are profiting from these attacks.

“They say that it’s to fight terrorism that they have to go to Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, and that’s how they justify their presence in those countries.” —AFP