Tehran, Iran - The Iranian Foreign Ministry convened the British allegations because it was arrested by an Iranian national called "suspicious and unnecessary".
Earlier this month, the UK accused several Iranian nationals of committing crimes without providing evidence, deliberately avoiding prompt notification of the Iranian embassy and preventing the consular from being contrary to international norms, according to state media.
It also accuses the British government of exerting "political motivation to put pressure on Iran" in the arrest.
The diplomatic quarrel comes two days after British police accused three Iranians under the country's 2023 National Security Act.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, are charged with potential to assist foreign intelligence services between August 14, 2024 and February 16, 2025.
They appeared in Westminster District Court on Saturday and they were also charged with surveillance and reconnaissance with the aim of committing or supporting serious violence against someone in the UK.
Their case was referred to the Central Criminal Court and the next hearing is scheduled to take place in early June.
The three are eight individuals arrested in May, including seven Iranians, which Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in recent years are some of the biggest investigations into similar activities.
Four other Iranians were arrested as part of a "counter-terrorism" operation and investigated. The eighth man was released last week.
To enhance clear efforts to address national security against secret foreign influences, the UK has placed Iran at the highest level under the Foreign Impact Registration Program (FIRS).
A nervous tie
The arrests are amid a tense connection between Iran and the three European powers under the Tehran nuclear program.
Britain, France and Germany have repeatedly criticized Iran for lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that Iran's nuclear program remains peaceful.
The three were branded with E3 in the context of negotiations and were a party to Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement. The United States unilaterally abandoned Iran's nuclear agreement in 2018.
However, the United States has reopened negotiations with Tehran to secure a new deal, and in four rounds of negotiations mediated by Oman, Iran has also stressed that it is willing to engage in more negotiations with E3, too.
Senior diplomats from both sides gathered on Friday in Istanbul, Tukuye Istanbul, for their first meeting since nuclear talks with Washington last month. Both sides stressed their commitment to continuing diplomacy, but there was no breakthrough.
Instead, Iran has repeatedly warned that if E3 strives to invoke a “snapshot” mechanism of the 2015 coma nuclear agreement, there will be “serious consequences” that will restore UN Security Council sanctions as part of the landmark agreement.
So far, Tehran and Washington have not seen uranium's vision, and Iran reiterated on Monday that it will not retreat from its citizens' nuclear program.
On the US Middle East special Steve Witkoff said President Donald Trump's administration doesn't even allow Iran to be rich as 1%, and Iranian Foreign Secretary Abbas Araghchi said "unrealistic" demands will only lead to dead ends.
E3 is also concerned that many reports have said that Iran has been arming Russia's war in Ukraine, an allegation Tehran denies.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a speech to reporters on Monday that Tehran has not received a written proposal from the United States to promote the fifth round of negotiations, which is expected to happen soon.
He also said Iran did not propose joint abundance businesses with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but supported such efforts.
“Western Asia, especially the Persian Gulf countries, may increasingly need nuclear energy and build power plants that require nuclear fuel, so it wouldn’t be awful if nuclear fuel facilities or consortiums were created in our region so that everyone could invest in them.”