Held British embassy staff face trial says Iranian cleric

AN INFLUENTIAL Iranian cleric yesterday accused Britain of plotting a "velvet revolution" in the Islamic Republic and proclaimed that UK embassy staff detained for allegedly fomenting post-election street unrest will be forced to stand trial.

Addressing thousands of worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran – broadcast on national television – Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati claimed Britain "had designed a velvet revolution in March, they said that street riots were possible during the June elections. These are signs … revealed by themselves".

He went on: "In these incidents, their (Britain's] embassy had a presence, some people were arrested. Naturally they will be put on trial, they have made confessions." He did not say how many local employees of the sprawling British embassy in Tehran would be tried or on what charges. London said seven of nine local staff detained by the Iranian authorities on 28 June have been released.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "We have noted the remarks by Ayatollah Jannati suggesting that some of our local staff in Iran may face trial. We are urgently seeking clarification from the appropriate Iranian authorities. I intend to speak to foreign minister Mottaki."

Jannati's rash new provocation against Britain was unexpected as it appears set to boomerang. It served to unite EU nations which immediately summoned Iranian ambassadors in their countries to protest against Tehran's antagonism of London. A day before, the EU had rejected UK and Czech calls to pull out all European ambassadors from Tehran.

The 27-member bloc as a whole has been keen to keep diplomatic channels with Iran open in the hope of rebooting long-stalled negotiations on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

But Iranian threats to stage a show trial of locally-employed British embassy staff will trigger a more aggressive EU stance.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden, which holds the union's presidency, said the EU must show "a united front" towards Iran over the detention of British embassy staff. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, expressed "total solidarity with our British friends" over the crisis. "Now it is up to the British to tell us what they need," he said.

Jannati claimed some of those detained had "made confessions" in connection with Iran's biggest street demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Forced "confessions", often televised, have been a staple of past bids by Iranian hardliners to denigrate foreign "enemies".

Relations between Tehran and Britain were already very tense following tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions last week. But while Iran's relatively pragmatic foreign ministry said it had no intention of downgrading relations with Britain, Jannati's remarks suggested hardliners are setting the agenda.

Britain has denied any role in the chaos which followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election on 12 June.