‘British police should have apologized over Iran van incident’

A family dedicated to promote Iran’s peaceful image around the world has slammed the British police over a recent attack on their campaign van in London.

"The UK police response is definitely exaggerated and at the same time it reflects perfectly the image the western politicians are trying to spread by demonizing Iran in order to distract the public opinion from internal problems we have here in Europe," Cristian Ivan, the founder of Iran is Great campaign told Press TV on Monday.

“Our property was damaged, our private space was violated.  We received no excuses or apologies from the authors of this vandalism act which was the British Police. At the same time we were overwhelmed by the number of messages we have received,…” he added.

The campaign known as ‘Iran Is Great’ posted a comment on its facebook page on August 8, criticizing the UK police for failing to “apologize or pay for the damage” they caused to their van on August 4.

This comes after the campaign founders, Cristian Ivan, 41, and his wife Audrey, 33, decided to visit museums in Kensington with their children last week during their campaign tour to Britain.

They parked the ‘Iran Is Great’ campaign van outside the Science Museum and left to see the museum.

Within minutes, 30 policemen with dogs arrived saying they had received reports of a suspicious vehicle.When they returned a few hours later, the family was shocked to find one of their windows smashed. 

The Science Museum was also evacuated. “We have evacuated the Museum as a precaution and will have an update to share soon,” RT quoted its tweet as saying.

Now Javier Farje, London-based editor and commentator, says the UK police reaction “was over the top” and that their attitude is different from that of the British public towards Iran.  

Ivan, who is from Romania but grew up in Germany, was inspired to start the ‘Iran is Great’ campaign with his wife, who is from France, after taking a detour into Iran on their way to India in 2013.

The couple decided to rent out their family home in Germany, furnish their van with beds and wardrobes and tour the world with their children. They were fascinated by Iran’s culture and decided to stay for longer.

In Iran, where they learned to speak Persian, Ivan told a television channel: “Iran is greater than we thought. So we thought we could change world opinion using these beautiful pictures on the car.”