Storming of British embassy in Tehran worsens bilateral relations

[bsnub]

Britain has threatened "serious consequences" for Iran after protesters stormed the British embassy in Tehran, ransacking offices and diplomatic residences and triggering one of the worst crises in bilateral relations since the Islamic revolution 32 years ago.

A mob including members of the paramilitary basij brigades, under the control of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, surged through lines of riot police and broke into the embassy and a separate residential compound, the Qolhak Gardens, in northern Tehran, chanting "Death to England" in scenes reminiscent of the seizure of the US embassy in 1979.

British diplomatic staff ran for safety and locked themselves in their offices and homes, with one group of about a dozen pinned down by the crowd while others were jostled, although there were no serious injuries. The crowd ripped the gildedUK crest off the embassy, pulled down the union flag and replaced it with the Iranian one, and threw satellite dishes off the roofs of embassy buildings. They also smashed windows and scattered thousands of papers in the street in front of the embassy, where British, US and Israeli flags were set alight.

At the Qolhak compound, a crowd roamed the wooded site where embassy staff live in flats and bungalows set among the trees, complicating the Foreign Office's efforts to confirm their safety.

Police only appeared to have regained control of both compounds by late evening, when the Tehran police chief, Hossein Sajedinia, announced that they had been emptied of protesters, and that some would be prosecuted. Iran's foreign ministry issued a statement expressing regret over the "unacceptable behaviour by [a] few demonstrators" and promising an investigation.

In London, David Cameron chaired a meeting of the cabinet's emergency committee, COBR, and the foreign secretary, William Hague, threatened "serious consequences" for the embassy invasion, which he described as "a very serious failure by the Iranian government". He is due to make a statement to parliament on Wednesday. A Foreign Office source said Britain's response would be "clear and robust".

Cameron said on Tuesday: "Those responsible for this criminal attack must be prosecuted. The Iranian government must recognise that there will be serious consequences for failing to protect our staff. We will consider what these measures should be in the coming days."

Hague said: "The United Kingdom takes this irresponsible action extremely seriously. It amounts to a grave breach of the Vienna convention which requires the protection of diplomats and diplomatic premises under all circumstances. We hold the Iranian government responsible for its failure to take adequate measures to protect our embassy, as it is required to do."

He confirmed that by 6pm, all the embassy's British staff had been accounted for, and most local employees had been warned not to come in on Tuesday in anticipation of trouble. But he added: "We are urgently establishing the whereabouts of our locally engaged security staff to ensure their wellbeing." He advised British nationals to "stay indoors, keep a low profile and await further advice".

The US and France also condemned the embassy raid, while the UN security council passed a resolution condemning the incident.

"The members of the security council condemned in the strongest terms the attacks against the United Kingdom's embassy in Tehran, Iran, which resulted in intrusions into the diplomatic and consular premises, causing serious damage," the Portuguese UN ambassador, José Filipe Moraes Cabral, said.

"Expressing their deep concern at such attacks, the members of the security council called on the Iranian authorities to protect diplomatic and consular property and personnel and to respect fully their international obligations," the UN statement said.

A British official added that the priority was assessing the scale of the damage and ensuring the security of all staff before announcing a response. He said there had been no significant injuries.

"There was some pushing and shoving but nothing too serious," the official said. "Some staff had their freedom of movement restricted. At one point, there was a group of about a dozen in one location, with a few Iranian police guarding the door and demonstrators roaming around outside. So a hairy and scary situation but nothing that could be described as a hostage situation."

The storming of the British embassy was the latest, and most violent, blow struck in a long-running battle of wits over Iran's nuclear programme. Diplomats had been expecting a major protest in Tehran on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist, Majid Shahriari, one of three killed over the past two years in the streets of the capital. The protesters carried picture of the dead scientists, who have been made martyrs to Iran's nuclear cause and symbols of the state's determination to press on with its programme in defiance of UN security council resolutions calling for a suspension of uranium enrichment.

It only became clear when the crowds began to gather outside the embassy on Ferdowsi Avenue and at Qolhak gardens on Tuesday morning that Britain would be the sole target of the protests, but it was not altogether surprising. Relations between Iran and the UK have almost always been tense since the Islamic revolution of 1979, and full ambassadorial ties have been the exception rather than the norm. In 1986 members of the Revolutionary Guards beat up the British charge d'affaires and 2007 saw the Iranian detention of 15 British sailors and marines in disputed waters along the Iraqi border. They were released after nearly two weeks in captivity.

Relations continued to deteriorate after the 2009 presidential election, when the regime blamed Britain for supporting the opposition Green movement. Iranian staff at the embassy were detained and ordered to resign their positions. Ordinary Iranians were warned not to have any contact with British diplomats. The Tehran municipal authorities meanwhile reinvigorated a long-running campaign to wrest back control of the 50-acre Qolhak Gardens, given to the British diplomatic mission by the Persian monarchy in the 19th century.

The latest crisis began with the publication this month of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, citing "credible" evidence that Iranian scientists had experimented with a nuclear warhead design and could be continuing to do so. The UK was the first to respond with punitive measures, cutting all ties to the Iranian banking system and parliament, the Majlis, which retaliated on Sunday by calling for the expulsion of Britain's ambassador, Dominick Chilcott, and the permanent downgrading of bilateral relations.

Richard Dalton, who served as ambassador to Tehran from 2002 to 2006, said the bilateral relationship had always been troubled, but Tuesday's riot was the first actual incursion into the embassy.

"This takes us to a bad feeling in bilateral relations we have not seen for a couple of decades. In my time, there were frequent demonstrations and we were always concerned that this would happen," he said. "The plan if it did happen was to sit tight and call on the [Iranian] authorities to fulfil their legal obligation to protect the embassy, which is an obligation the Iranians do recognise.

"The positive part of this is that the Iranians seem to have done the right thing in the end. The negative side, which is very serious and worthy of strong complaint, is that they didn't seem to have an adequate police presence to stop it happening in the first place."

A British official said that the police had ample warning that there could be violent protests directed at the embassy.

"It was transparently clear that some hardline pro-regime elements were putting it about on the internet and on social media: let's go and trash the Brits. So there is no doubt that if they wanted to stop this from happening they could have. When it came to opposition demonstrators they didn't have the same difficulties," the official said.

Diplomats and observers who reviewed video footage of the incident said it was clear from the clothing, placards and behaviour of some of the protesters that a significant number were basiji, who were the regime's shock troops in crushing street protests after the 2009 election.

Some of the placards bore the picture of Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards' external wing, which has been active in Iraq and Syria. The US blamed him and his force last month for an alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US in a Washington restaurant where he would be dining.

Suleimani, seen as a radical and growing force in the constant jostling for power in Tehran, once wrote to General David Petraeus, telling the then US commander in Iraq that it was he, Suleimani, who controlled Iranian foreign policy in the region.

The storming of the embassy came at a time when conservatives in the parliament, judiciary and security forces are resisting efforts by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to defuse the rising tensions in Iran's relations with the rest of the world, amid ever-tightening sanctions, growing diplomatic isolation and chronic economic problems. Some diplomats said Monday's events were as much a measure of the internal turmoil inside the Tehran regime as the bitterness of its relations with the west.

Storming of British embassy in Tehran worsens bilateral relations | Politics | The Guardian

[Butterfly]

We will consider what these measures should be in the coming days.

looks like we are going to war with Iran this time,

[Butterfly]

It was transparently clear that some hardline pro-regime elements were putting it about on the internet and on social media: let's go and trash the Brits. So there is no doubt that if they wanted to stop this from happening they could have.

I guess the Facebook Revolution can only be one way

[teddy]

This may do it. IE provoke public opinion to support a war against Iran. However, I think a 'terrorist' action credited to the evil Iranians will really cement it for our intelligence services. It's the last jigsaw piece on the oil reserves ownership map. We need to get there before China becomes too confident in its military and its position in the world.

[Butterfly]

it's becoming clear that peak oil has arrived, and because our economies are so dependent on oil for survival, that we need to secure that source lines before we are taken hostage by the fucking ragheads

[Boon Mee]

We will consider what these measures should be in the coming days.

looks like we are going to war with Iran this time,

We've been at War with I-Ran since they stormed the US Embassy back when. It's just not been a shooting war - yet.

[withnallstoke]

It's been blown up out of all proportion.
The "mob" went to the embassy to enquire about the possibility of loaning a cup of sugar as the shops were shut and they had run out of sweetener to put in the tea.

[sabang]

US/ Nato foreign policy in the Middle East is mostly an unmitigated disaster. The problem is not Iran.
The root cause is the inexplicable, almost infantile, need of the US to kowtow to tiny, belligerent Israel.

[Butterfly]

US/ Nato foreign policy in the Middle East is mostly an unmitigated disaster. The problem is not Iran.
The root cause is the inexplicable, almost infantile, need of the US to kowtow to tiny, belligerent Israel.

indeed, Obama made the stupid mistake to put Clinton in charge, she is a fucking disaster, no credibility, vapid, and morally corrupt

[Butterfly]

These new governments in Libya, Egypt are already enacting Sharia Law and moving backwards in time to the stone age.

yes all thanks to Nato and western interventions, how is that for helping terrorism ?

the US and western policies in the ME is beyond fucked up, we had an opportunity to fix it but GW Cretin Bush just followed the script he was given by the Israeli spies at the Pentagon

[Boon Mee]

Becoming a responsible member of the international community...

Define 'responsible member'?

Does it mean when the Arabs continue to lob scuds into schools, the Jews are supposed to turn the other cheek?

Does it mean when the Arabs continue refusing Israel's right to exist they should accept that?

What constitutes a 'responsible member'?

[Ceburat1]

Iran should have been nuked in 1979. Today would be a good day to play catch-up.

[taxexile]

What constitutes a 'responsible member'?

one that can keep the disruptive neanderthal moron states in line.

[Ceburat1]

What constitutes a 'responsible member'?

One who nukes Iran.

[harrybarracuda]

The footage reminds me of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes".

[HansuMan]

some Iran history from Anthony Lawson, 10 mins, "Double Vendetta — The Insanity of the Iran Confrontation"

Uploaded by alawson911 on Aug 11, 2010
How long can we allow the maniacs who are driving us to the brink of World War Three to stay in power? We'd better do something soon, or we will all be done for.

My special thanks to Gilad Atzmon, whose reading of the "Israeli Peace Manifesto" helps to point up the gulf between what they say and what they do. The original text can be found at: Pro-Israel - The portal to friends of Israel worldwide Gilad's rather more honest writing can be found at: Gilad Atzmon - Home He's a pretty cool saxophone player, too.

[Butterfly]

Ceburat, the American retard Christian fundamentalist RWA follower is inline with Muslim fundamentalist mentality,

[dirtydog]

"It was transparently clear that some hardline pro-regime elements were putting it about on the internet and on social media: let's go and trash the Brits. So there is no doubt that if they wanted to stop this from happening they could have. When it came to opposition demonstrators they didn't have the same difficulties," the official said.

Yes, reminds me of the students marching in London, the Met police had no control over them at all, they could have stopped it in London, but they didn't.

[pickel]

Does it mean when the Arabs continue to lob scuds into schools, the Jews are supposed to turn the other cheek?

Does it mean when the Arabs continue refusing Israel's right to exist they should accept that?

Iranians aren't Arabs, they are Persians. And I don't recall them lobbing any scuds into Israeli schools.

[bsnub]

Does it mean when the Arabs continue to lob scuds into schools, the Jews are supposed to turn the other cheek?

Does it mean when the Arabs continue refusing Israel's right to exist they should accept that?

Iranians aren't Arabs, they are Persians. And I don't recall them lobbing any scuds into Israeli schools.

The boontard stepped in it again. I bet in his mind they are all the same Shia, Sunni, Persian, Arab, Turk, Kurd.

All the same in his redneck, foxnews world.

[harrybarracuda]

Does it mean when the Arabs continue to lob scuds into schools, the Jews are supposed to turn the other cheek?

Does it mean when the Arabs continue refusing Israel's right to exist they should accept that?

Iranians aren't Arabs, they are Persians. And I don't recall them lobbing any scuds into Israeli schools.

No but you should always call them Arabs. It's worth it for the look on their faces.

[Latindancer]

Helen Thomas' question was penetrating. And Obama's answer was pretty evasive.
It's with deep disgust that I also note that in recent years Israel dropped cluster bombs in Lebanon, some of which were picked up by children.

[bsnub]

It's with deep disgust that I also note that in recent years Israel dropped cluster bombs in Lebanon, some of which were picked up by children.

Sad that. Fuck them all. I only care about my US Marines that there fathers bombed. Fuck them.

Fucking boy loving, acid face burning women hating, child molesting sickos.

[HansuMan]

Helen Thomas' question was penetrating. And Obama's answer was pretty evasive.

I don't know if you're aware of the "troubles" Helen Thomas encountered when she started speaking out against zionism,
7 Nov 11 - Helen Thomas Skewers Zionism - Again

It's with deep disgust that I also note that in recent years Israel dropped cluster bombs in Lebanon, some of which were picked up by children.

Besides having at least 100s of nukes which Israel has already threatened Western capitals with if they step out of line, they also bombed Palestinian civilians with outlawed "white phosphorous" in their "Operation Cast Lead" a couple years ago.

But all their zionist global media wants to talk about is "Iran's nuclear ambitions"...

Anthony Lawson's videos are terrific, here's his youtube channel: alawson911's Channel - YouTube

Besides exposing 9/11 Truth and Rothschild-Zionist control of America, he has this one directed at OZers, from the national fallout after Oz trades unionist Kevin Bracken called into a public radio show and asked some hard questions about 9/11 Truth- this vid exposes how zionist-owned the Oz gov't is too:

[Butterfly]

Israeli are scums, period

reminds me of the Nazi,