Ahwazi Arabs protested in front of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) House in London and called for no compromise over human rights atrocities on Friday 24th April 2015.
The protest in front of NIOC House, government-owned corporation under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran, is an oil and natural gas producer and distributor headquartered in Tehran. NIOC ranks as the world’s third largest oil company.
It is stated that “As Ahwaz (Khuzestan) is the main oil and gas producing province” in Iran. Iranian and British diplomats were denied access to enter the NIOC building in London from the main entrance and had to enter the building from the backdoors as a result of the protest by members of the DSPA and other Ahwazis in front of the NIOC building.
This protest was coinciding with a meeting between the British and Iranian delegates inside the building led by UK Chargé d’Affaires, Ajay Sharma, who is expected to become the next British ambassador in Tehran. Protestors demanded not to re-establish the relations with the dictatorial regime of Iran after information being leaked about British oil companies requesting normalisation in the relations with Iran to facilitate their entry to the Iranian oil market. It is estimated that more that 85% of the Iranian oil exports are extracted from Ahwaz (Khuzestan) in south west of Iran. While local Arabs suffer from very high rates of unemployment, poverty and lack of infrastructure.
The protestors then moved to the Iranian embassy in London. The peaceful demonstrators called the staff in the embassy to listen to their concerns regarding the Ahwazi Arabs suffers, but the staff refused to come out of the embassy and called for the police. After arrival of the police the embassy staff came out wearing bulletproof.
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