British staff evacuated from Iranian embassy

BRITAIN has closed its embassy in Iran and all UK staff have left the country after the compound was stormed by protesters yesterday, Foreign Secretary William Hague revealed today.

He announced that the Government was also requiring the closure of the Iranian embassy in London and the departure from Britain of all of its staff within the next 48 hours.

Addressing the Commons, Mr Hague said Tehran should be “ashamed” of the events that took place yesterday.

The attacks come two days after the Iranian parliament approved a Bill reducing diplomatic relations with Britain following London’s support of recently-upgraded US sanctions on Tehran.

The Bill - which marks a new low point in diplomatic tensions between London and Tehran - requires Iran and Britain to withdraw their ambassadors from each other’s country and reduce representation to the level of charge d’affaires.

It also calls for trade between the two countries to be reduced to “minimum levels”.

Last week, the UK announced that it had severed all financial ties with Iranian banks in response to mounting fears over the country’s nuclear ambitions.

Chancellor George Osborne said all British credit and financial institutions had to cease trading with Iran’s banks from the afternoon of Monday November 21 - the first use of the power to cut off an entire nation’s banking sector.

The move was part of a wider international effort by the United States and Canada to put pressure on the Islamic republic, which western governments have accused of seeking to produce nuclear weapons for almost a decade.

Diplomatic tensions were significantly raised earlier this month after the latest assessment by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned of Iran’s “capacity creep” towards an atomic weapon.

Mr Hague said that, as well as the central Tehran embassy compound, another one in the north of the city had come under attack at the same time.

“Shortly after 3pm Tehran time yesterday approximately 200 demonstrators overran the city-centre compound of our Embassy in Tehran.

“The majority of demonstrators were from a student Basij militia organisation. We should be clear from the outset that this is an organisation controlled by elements of the Iranian regime.

“The demonstrators proceeded systematically to vandalise and loot the homes of staff located on the site and the Ambassador’s residence. They destroyed furniture, stole property including the personal possessions of our staff and set fire to the main Embassy office building.

“Simultaneously, our second Embassy compound at Gulhaq in North Tehran also came under attack. Staff homes there were also attacked and looted.”