UK Iranian Embassy Closed, Diplomats Expelled

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The Iranian Embassy in London has closed and its diplomats were asked to leave the UK by 2pm today after attacks on the British Embassy in Tehran.

Protesters stormed the Embassy on Tuesday after Britain imposed sanctions on the Iran central bank last week, following a UN report which suggested Iran may have worked on developing a nuclear arsenal. Iran refutes this, saying it only wants nuclear technology to generate electricity. Iran is the fifth largest oil exporter and while Britain has not backed a ban on Iranian oil imports, sanctions could yet be imposed on Iran.

A blandly uninformative statement on the Iranian Embassy’s website says:

Iran´s Foreign Ministry expressed regret over the unacceptable actions of a few protesters despite the efforts of Iranian security forces to stop them.

The Kensington-based Embassy has been the target of protests in the past; in February anti-government demonstrators gathered to protest against the Islamic government. Looks like the Iranian diplomats won’t be needing their new embassy building in the near future after all.

http://londonist.com/2011/12/iranian-embassy-closed-diplomats-expelled.php

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Re: UK Iranian Embassy Closed, Diplomats Expelled

Comment by Russian MFA Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich on the Intrusion by Protesters into the Territory of the British Embassy in Tehran

The Russian Foreign Ministry in its statement dated November 29 condemned the illegal intrusion by demonstrators into the territory of the British Embassy in Tehran. There can be no justification for this outrageous action. It is also undoubted that the Iranian authorities should investigate this incident and prevent any future violations of the universally recognized norms of international law guaranteeing the inviolability of the territories and equipment of diplomatic missions.

Unfortunately, what happened in Tehran is yet another link in the chain of recent events that provoke tension around Iran. It's not just that Tehran still hasn’t complied with the demands of the international community to restore confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program (INP), but also the counterproductive, untimely and poorly informed report of the IAEA on “possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program,” the imposition by individual countries of additional unilateral sanctions, as well as the totally unacceptable threats to use military force against Iran. We stand firmly against the cranking up of the spiral of confrontation over Iran-related issues. We believe that this line is fraught with grave consequences. In addition, the growing tension in relations with Tehran actually blocks the resumption of talks between the P5+1 and Iran on INP and other matters of interest to both Tehran and other participants in the talks. This also puts in jeopardy the continuation of cooperation between Iran and the IAEA to clear up the Agency’s existing questions.

We are convinced that this alarming tendency to whip up tensions around Iran should be promptly reversed. To resolve the Iranian nuclear problem, and other issues of mutual relations with Tehran, is possible only through dialogue. We urge, first of all, the Iranian leadership, as well as other concerned states to heed this opinion.

http://www.isria.com/pages/2_December_2011_1.php

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Re: UK Iranian Embassy Closed, Diplomats Expelled

Safety issues of diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan abroad are constantly in the spotlight of official Baku.

The statement came from Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Elman Abdullayev.

The attack on the British embassy in Tehran has caused a wide resonance in the world.

Thus, Russia has decided to tighten security measures for its embassy. Neighbors of Great Britain in the European Union - France, Germany and the Netherlands decided to withdraw their ambassadors from Iran, Italy considers closing their embassy in Tehran. In response to the rioting Britain has announced the deportation of all employees of the Iranian embassy to London. The work of the British diplomatic mission in Teheran was also suspended.

Iranian students earlier staged a demonstration at the door of the British embassy in Tehran. They burned the British flag and smashed the cars parked next to the complex. Young people smashed the windows of the Embassy and the residential complex for diplomats and got inside the premises.

Students were able to take six embassy staff hostage. At the end of the pogrom, protesters knocked the symbol of Great Britain off the representative office. Such a reaction was provoked by the decision of London to impose new sanctions against Iran. Iranian police watched the scene and intervened only to release the embassy staff.

http://xxxnews.az/articles/politics/50035