Hardliners welcome diplomats UK expelled

IRANIAN diplomats expelled from London, after the British embassy in Tehran was stormed, arrived home yesterday to supporters bearing flowers and chanting “death to England”.

“Spy embassy closed for good,” read one of the many placards carried by some 100 men and women, most of whom appeared to be members of the hardline Basij militia, congregated at Imam Khomeini Airport.

Downing Street evacuated all British diplomatic staff and closed its embassy in Tehran after it was stormed and ransacked last Tuesday. France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands withdrew their ambassadors from Iran in protest.

With swift condemnation from many nations, the embassy storming risks further isolating Iran, already reeling from several rounds of sanctions over a nuclear programme many contend aims to develop atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has yet to comment on the incident, an indication, some observers say, that it was organised by rival hardliners within the faction-riven establishment.

Iran’s foreign ministry has expressed regret over the embassy storming, which it said was a spontaneous overflowing of anger during a student protest. Downing Street has said there must have been at least tacit support from the regime, whose security forces failed to stop the attack.

Speaking to reporters at the airport, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast advised European Union members not to allow the diplomatic row to worsen their own ties with the Islamic republic.

“The British government is trying to extend to other European countries the problem between the two of us but, of course, we have told European countries not to subject their ties with us with the kind of problems that existed between Iran and Britain,” he said.

Iran’s relations with the UK have grown strained, largely due to tensions over Tehran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a key part of its nuclear plans.

The process is of deep concern to western powers, and has also been criticised by Russia and China, as it can produce material for nuclear warheads as well as reactor fuel. Iran insists its aims are entirely peaceful.

With the United States and several other European nations, the UK has backed sanctions that have so far failed to push Iran to halt its enrichment programme. Some in Iran have said the embassy attack was an outpouring of wrath from Iranians who believe Britain is a hostile country seeking to damage and weaken Iran.

Mohammad Mohammadian, a representative of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even praised the attackers, saying they had targeted the “epicentre of sedition”.

Iran’s constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, passed a parliamentary bill into law requiring the Iranian government to downgrade its relations with the UK. The Tehran regime opposed it but said it would abide by the new legislation.