Iran tells West to avoid crisis
Source: Agencies |
December 4, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IRAN called on the West to avoid a deepening diplomatic crisis following the storming of the British embassy in Tehran, saying it was an issue between Tehran and London alone, Iranian media reported yesterday.
Britain closed its embassy after Tuesday's incursion by hard-line youths and expelled all Iranian diplomats from London. The fallout for Tehran spread when several other countries recalled their envoys, including France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
"The British government is trying to extend to other European countries the problem between the two of us," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was reported as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.
"But of course we have told European countries not to subject their ties with us to the kind of problems that existed between Iran and Britain."
Western nations on Thursday significantly tightened sanctions against Iran, with the European Union expanding an Iranian blacklist and the US Senate passing a measure that could severely disrupt Iran's oil income.
Iranian diplomats expelled from London 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 the crowd of some 100 men and women, at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport.
With swift condemnation from around the world, the embassy storming risks further isolating Iran, which is already under several rounds of sanctions.
The incident followed accusations from Washington of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador and a report from the UN nuclear watchdog suggesting Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.
The US and Israel have not ruled out military strikes if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute.
Britain closed its embassy after Tuesday's incursion by hard-line youths and expelled all Iranian diplomats from London. The fallout for Tehran spread when several other countries recalled their envoys, including France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
"The British government is trying to extend to other European countries the problem between the two of us," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was reported as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.
"But of course we have told European countries not to subject their ties with us to the kind of problems that existed between Iran and Britain."
Western nations on Thursday significantly tightened sanctions against Iran, with the European Union expanding an Iranian blacklist and the US Senate passing a measure that could severely disrupt Iran's oil income.
Iranian diplomats expelled from London 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 the crowd of some 100 men and women, at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport.
With swift condemnation from around the world, the embassy storming risks further isolating Iran, which is already under several rounds of sanctions.
The incident followed accusations from Washington of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador and a report from the UN nuclear watchdog suggesting Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.
The US and Israel have not ruled out military strikes if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute.
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