Iranian authorities have moved to confiscate St. Peter Evangelical Church in Tehran, a congregation that has served the city's Protestant community for nearly 150 years, and have ordered the 20 low-income Christian families living on the property to leave. Officials with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have already occupied a 10,000 square meter garden belonging to the church, according to church leaders, and the property is set to be transferred to a state-controlled organization that handles confiscated religious and private property.
Church leaders say armed intelligence and regime agents threatened them with imprisonment. The move follows the seizure or closure of several other Protestant properties in Iran in recent years, including churches in Tabriz, Mashhad, and Gorgan.