BRITAIN LAST night threatened “serious consequences” for Iran after protesters stormed the British embassy in Tehran yesterday, 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, 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 offices and homes, with one group of about a dozen pinned down by the crowd, while others were jostled. The crowd ripped the UK crest off the embassy, pulled down the union flag and replaced it with the Iranian one, and threw satellite dishes off the roofs of buildings. They smashed windows and scattered thousands of papers in the street, where British, US and Israeli flags were set alight.
A crowd roamed the wooded site at the Qolhak compound where embassy staff live in apartments and bungalows set among trees, complicating the UK 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 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.
British prime minister David Cameron chaired a meeting of the cabinet’s emergency committee and foreign secretary William Hague threatened “serious consequences” over the embassy invasion. He is due to make a statement to parliament today.
He confirmed that by 6pm last night all the embassy’s British staff had been accounted for, and most local employees had been warned not to come in yesterday 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 condemned the raid, while the UN security council passed a resolution condemning the incident.
Diplomats had been expecting a major protest in Tehran yesterday 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 capital.
It only became clear when the crowds began to gather outside the embassy on Ferdowsi Avenue and at Qolhak gardens yesterday morning that Britain would be the sole target of the protests, but it was not altogether surprising.
The latest crisis began with the publication this month of a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency citing “credible” evidence 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.
A British official said the police had had ample warning. “When it came to opposition demonstrators they didn’t have the same difficulties,” the official said. – (Guardian service)