A journalist for an independent Iranian media outlet who was stabbed in London last week has returned to work and said “the show must go on”.
Pouria Zeraati, a presenter on Iran’s international TV station, suffered a leg injury in the March 29 attack and required hospital treatment.
The 36-year-old said the stabbing was a “warning”.
“They just parked in my lap, it was their choice,” he told ITV News.
“They had a chance to kill me because the second guy grabbed me and the first guy pulled out a knife and they had a chance to stop wherever they wanted,” he added.
Zelati said he had returned to work on Friday, adding: “Whatever the motivation, the show must go on.”
London’s Metropolitan Police said the two suspects traveled directly from the scene in south-west London to Heathrow Airport and left the UK “within a few hours”.
Detectives are considering whether “the victim’s occupation as a journalist for a Persian-language media outlet in the UK” may have triggered the attack.
However, Iran’s charge d’affaires in the UK, Mehdi Hosseini Mateen, said Tehran denied “any connection” to the attack.
Britain’s Metropolitan Police have previously foiled alleged plots to kidnap or even kill Britons or individuals living in Britain who were considered enemies of Tehran.
The Iranian government has declared Iran International a terrorist organization.
The British government last year imposed a tougher sanctions regime on Iran over alleged human rights abuses and hostile actions against Iranian opponents on British soil.
