Iran's supreme leader Khamenei issues verbal attack on 'evil Britain'

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggered a diplomatic row today when he publicly singled out "evil" Britain as the foremost enemy of the Islamic republic.

Gordon Brown responded swiftly by condemning Iran's "repression and ­brutality" in the strongest language used by the UK yet about last week's disputed presidential poll. Previous public ­comments have been ­deliberately restrained to avoid fuelling Iranian accusations of interference in its internal affairs.

Iran's ambassador to London was summoned to the Foreign Office after Khamenei's remarks during midday ­Friday prayers at Tehran University, where the cleric referred to Britain as "the most evil" of foreign powers. The US and Israel were also attacked.

Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels, Brown said Britain stood with the EU over this crisis. "It is for Iran now to show the world that the elections have been fair … that the repression and the brutality that we have seen in these last few days is not something that is going to be repeated," the prime minister said. "We want Iran to be part of the international community and not to be isolated."

Khamenei's attack was part of a broadside against western countries he described as "hungry wolves" preying on Iran. "The diplomats who have talked to us with courtesy up to now have in the past few days taken the masks away from their faces and are showing their true image," he said. "They are showing their true enmity towards the Iranian Islamic state and the most evil of them is the ­British government."

The mention of Britain – still demonised in Iran over involvement that dates back to the days of its imperial might – triggered chants of Marg bar Ingles (Death to Britain) from the worshippers at Tehran University's mosque.

Iran has been especially angry with the UK in recent months because of the launch of the BBC Persian TV channel, which was set up to provide impartial news and analysis, in Farsi, to an audience that is squeezed between state-controlled TV and US-based stations which lack weight or credibility. Tehran sees it as an unacceptable provocation and waged a ­campaign of intimidation against anyone associated with it.

BBC Persian has been broadcasting five extra hours a day since the election crisis began, and today ran live coverage of Khamenei's speech and instant analysis that was broadcast back to Iran, including critical comments that could never be made by domestic broadcasters.

Last Saturday, the day after the election, its website received 3m hits. After one of the televised presidential debates that ­galvanised the campaign it received 2,500 emails in less than an hour.

But it has been forced to combat ­interference from within Iran by increasing the number of satellites it uses. The BBC World Service said today it was increasing the number of ways it transmits to Farsi and Dari speakers in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan after several days of "persistent interference".

"We are accused of all sorts of thing by the Iranian authorities," said acting head of BBC Persian TV, Rob Beynon. "But some opposition people say we are not going far enough. Some say we should be more explicit in calling it a rigged election. There isn't incontrovertible proof but obviously we report the claims of Mousavi and his supporters."

In his speech Khamenei also took aim at other foreign elements, namely the "Zionist-controlled" western media and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Without naming her, he compared her comments on human rights in Iran with the FBI raid on the Branch Davidian cult's headquarters in Waco, Texas in 1993 that left 75 dead. The incident occurred in the early months of Bill Clinton's presidency.