Prince Harry claimed in his memoir that he killed 25 Taliban members in Afghanistan (Picture: PA)

Prince Harry has been dragged into a row with Iran over the execution of a diplomat after the regime seized on his revelation that he took out 25 Taliban while serving in Afghanistan.

Britain should not lecture others when a royal family member ‘sees the killing of 25 innocent people as removal of chess pieces and has no regrets’, the country’s foreign ministry tweeted.

It came after No.10 condemned the treatment of British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari – put to death last week over spying claims.

Britain is being hypocritical by preaching over human rights when it has ‘turned a blind eye’ to Harry’s ‘war crime’, Iran said.

In his memoir Spare, Harry says he feels neither satisfaction nor shame about his actions while serving in Afghanistan ten years ago. To deal with his emotions he dehumanised his victims by seeing them as ‘chess pieces’, the prince wrote.

The execution of Mr Akbari, 61, was condemned by Rishi Sunak as a ‘callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime’.

Iran executed Alireza Akbari, the country’s former deputy defence minister (Picture: Reuters)

The ex-deputy Iranian defence minister was arrested in 2019 and convicted of spying for the UK, a charge he denied.

Iranian media said on Saturday he had been hanged.

Britain has imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on the country’s prosecutor general, saying the regime must be held to account ‘for its appalling human rights violations’.

Foreign secretary James Cleverly has temporarily withdrawn ambassador to Iran Simon Shercliff. Anti-regime protests in the Islamic republic have led to 14,000 arrests.

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Iran said Britain was being hypocritical in preaching over human rights.