Iran Respects British People’s Vote to Leave EU

Iran says it respects the British people’s decision to leave the European Union, saying it will have no effect on the Islamic Republic’s approach towards the UK.

Iran “respects the British people’s vote to leave the European Union, and deems it to be in agreement with the will of the majority of the country’s people in regulating their foreign relations,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, after a majority of Britons voted in a referendum to leave the bloc after 43 years of membership.

The statement further said that Iran is always willing to broaden its relations with the European countries based on mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, adding that the UK’s exit from the EU will not make any changes to Tehran’s approach towards London.

In the Thursday referendum, some 51.90 percent of British voters opted to leave the EU, while roughly 48.10 percent of people voted to stay in the union. More than 17.4 million Britons said the country should leave the bloc, as just over 16.14 million others favored remaining in the EU.

Following the announcement of the results on Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation, saying he would leave office by October, when his ruling Conservative Party will hold a conference.

Cameron said there is no doubt about the result of the referendum but that he is not the “captain” that will steer the ship through difficult negotiations with the EU.

Membership of the European Union has been a controversial issue in the UK since the country joined the then European Economic Community in 1973.

Those in favor of a British withdrawal from the EU argued that outside the bloc, London would be better positioned to conduct its own trade negotiations, better able to control immigration, and free from what they believe to be excessive EU regulations and bureaucracy.

Those in favor of remaining in the bloc argued that leaving it would risk the UK’s prosperity, diminish its influence over world affairs, and result in trade barriers between the country and the bloc.

The foreign ministers of the original six founding nations of the European Union, namely Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg will get together in the German city of Berlin on Saturday to discuss “current European political topics.”

The British pound slumped to its lowest level in more than three decades after the UK voted to leave the EU.

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