Fars News: BBC "plotting to recruit spies and stir a new revolution"

The BBC is starting a Persian-language channel, you see:

Iran accused the BBC of plotting to recruit spies and stir a new revolution by launching a Persian-language satellite channel.

BBC Persian, which will go on air next week, will be used by British intelligence for "espionage and psychological warfare", according to Iranian officials.

The channel, which has a £15 million budget and 140 staff, will broadcast news and features in Persian into Iran to anyone with a satellite dish.

Tehran described the new channel as "suspicious and illegal" and "working against the interests of the Islamic republic". Viewers were warned to avoid the "lie-spreading" network.

The BBC has a long-running Persian radio service and a Persian website, but the satellite channel will reach a far wider audience.

While the BBC is well known, many Iranians have a deep-seated suspicion of British conspiracies stemming from repeated intervention in the country over more than a century. [...]