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The reaction of the Iranian government to protests that followed the re-election of President Ahmadinejad was "entirely unacceptable", Ivan Lewis has said.
Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate on human rights in Iran, the Foreign Office minister said Ayatollah Khamenei's call for those involved in protests to be "shown no mercy" was a cause for "serious concern".
"Peoples' right of free assembly has been effective withdrawn in the aftermath of the elections," he said.
Lewis cautioned that while it was not for Britain to determine the out come of the Iranian election, it was entirely appropriate for the government to argue that the "will of the Iranian people" should prevail.
The human rights situation in Iran had "consistently deteriorated" over the last few years and despite a "history of tolerance" the country's minority groups were increasingly subject to persecution and intimidation, he said.
The use of the death penalty on juveniles, the persecution of minorities, and the treatment of women were all cited by the minister as examples of a "rigid clampdown" on opposition by the regime.
"The choice that Iran has to make is does it wish to become part of the mainstream international community, or does it want to remain at the margins?" Lewis asked.
Introducing the debate, Lembit Opik (Lib Dem, Montgomeryshire) called on the government to put pressure on Iran to cease the persecution of the Bahá'ís community.
"Over the lat few year there has been a resurgent of extreme forms of persecution directed at the Bahá'ís community of Iran," he said.
Opik, the leader of the all-party parliamentary friends of the Bahá'ís group, said the seven Bahá'ís community leaders currently being held by the Iranian authorities are likely charged with espionage on behalf of Israel, despite "no evidence" to support the claim.
The seven are likely to go on trial on July 11.
"You could not find a more benign or humanistic religion anywhere on earth," Opik added.
Lewis said that any trial should be conducted according to "international best practice" and that international observers should be permitted to witness the proceedings.
While Opik called for the Foreign Office to make a "formal submission" of such demands to Iran, the minister said it was more appropriate to conduct business though the "relevant international institutions" such as the UN and EU.
Lewis said: "It's probably appropriate that all we say at this stage is that we demand maximum transparency and openness in the way that that trial is conducted."
And he rejected accusations of appeasement levelled at the government by David Amess (Con, Southend West).
"There are no human rights in Iran unless you support the totally discredited president," Amess told MPs.
Amess said the British government's "policy of appeasement" during Jack Straw's tenure as foreign secretary had "disastrous results".
In 2002, Jack Straw became the first British foreign secretary to visit Iran since its Islamic revolution in 1979.
Lewis said that it was "absolutely appropriate" that the UK had attempted to engage with Iran. But it was "regrettable" that they chose to "turn their back" on that offer, he stated.
"Let us hope they do not make that mistake again."
He also noted that Britain's ambassador led the walk out on Ahmadinejad during the Iranian president's "vile" speech at the Durban anti-racism conference.
Lewis also cautioned against "playing into the propaganda" of the Iranian regime.
"We should not allow it to be said that it’s our foreign policy that legitimises and justifies the behaviour of Iran," he said.
Jeremy Corbyn (Lab, Islington North) warned that "persistent British and American meddling" had not been forgotten by the Iranian people.
"As a country, we don’t have clean hands," he told MPs.
Corbyn called for a policy of "sympathy, support and understanding", coupled with condemnation of abuses of human rights and the "illegal, irrational imprisonment of people".
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd