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Britain expels Iranian diplomats after embassy attack
12/01/2011 Britain expelled all Iranian diplomats and shut its embassy in Tehran after the mission was attacked by protesters angry at fresh sanctions against the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

Iran warned Britain of "repercussions" and urged other European Union nations not to follow suit, although several including France, Germany and the Netherlands said they were recalling their envoys for consultations.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague accused the Iranian government of tacit support for Tuesday's attack by hundreds of demonstrators, though he stopped short of cutting diplomatic ties altogether.

"If any country makes it impossible for us to operate on their soil they cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here," Hague said in a speech to parliament.

To cheers from lawmakers, Hague said he had ordered all Iranian embassy staff to leave Britain within 48 hours and closed the mission in London immediately.

All Britain-based staff had also been evacuated from the embassy in Iran for their safety and the mission had been shut just minutes before he spoke, he added.

Britain's newspapers on Thursday unanimously backed the government's decision.

"When British diplomats are not safe in Iran, Iranian diplomats should not be welcome here," said the Times editorial, accusing Iran of holding itself to lower standards than Genghis Khan.

The centre-right Daily Telegraph called on the European Union to "stand alongside Britain in imposing tough sanctions on Tehran".

The protests in Tehran were called to vent anger over Britain's announcement last week it was halting all transactions with Iran's financial system, including its central bank.

Iranian officials this week retaliated by passing a law to expel the British ambassador within days, as diplomatic ties were downgraded.

British Prime Minister David Cameron had earlier promised "very tough action" following the violent scenes when around 200 protesters rampaged for hours through Britain's two diplomatic compounds in Tehran.

They tore down the Union Jack, ripped up pictures of Queen Elizabeth II, trashed embassy offices, set documents alight and briefly blocked the movements of six diplomats.

Iranian police, who initially appeared to do little to prevent the violence, eventually forced protesters to leave after firing tear gas and clashing with them, Hague said.

"The idea that the Iranian authorities could not have protected our embassy or that this assault could have taken place without some degree of regime consent is fanciful," he said.

But the British actions did "not amount to the severing of diplomatic relations in their entirety," he said.

"It is action that reduces our relations with Iran to the lowest level consistent with the maintenance of diplomatic relations".

Tensions is already high between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme, which it insists is only for civilian purposes.

EU foreign ministers will hold talks Thursday on issues including Iran, with Britain believed to be pushing for coordinated action that could include oil sanctions.

France, Germany and the Netherlands all said Wednesday they were recalling their ambassadors to Iran for "consultations".

Norway temporarily closed its embassy amid concerns over security. Sweden summoned the Iranian ambassador.

The UN Security Council, the United States, the European Union and even Iran's ally Russia all condemned the assault on the British embassy.

Iran's foreign ministry had earlier expressed regret over the incident, and a senior policeman was quoted as saying that some protesters had been arrested.

But parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani defended the protesters, saying they had been angered by the British government and "decades of domineering moves by the British in Iran".

Britain's sanctions against Iran's financial system were announced in conjunction with similar measures by the United States and Canada following a UN report which crystallised fears about Tehran's nuclear programme.

Protests against Western embassies are frequent in Tehran, but the storming of the British embassy was by far the worst since 1979, when Islamic students broke into the US embassy, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

That act resulted in the breaking of all diplomatic ties between the United States and Iran.

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United States has accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds Force of orchestrating a plot.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - If the United States has evidence and plays its cards right, history shows that it can win the powerful U.N. Security Council to its side in the case of Iran's alleged plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador.
The United States has accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds Force of orchestrating a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's envoy to Washington and suggested it could push for council action against Iran.
Iran denies the U.S. allegations, which Tehran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council was U.S. "warmongering" and an "evil plot" against Tehran.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - If the United States has evidence and plays its cards right, history shows that it can win the powerful U.N. Security Council to its side in the case of Iran's alleged plot to assassinate a Saudi ambassador.
The United States has accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds Force of orchestrating a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's envoy to Washington and suggested it could push for council action against Iran.
Iran denies the U.S. allegations, which Tehran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council was U.S. "warmongering" and an "evil plot" against Tehran.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice forwarded details of the case against Iran to Ban, telling him that Tehran's actions were "a serious threat to international peace and security." She said Washington was speaking with council members about the case and asked Ban to forward the case details to the General Assembly.
The U.S. delegation has not made up its mind whether to approach the council with the Iranian case. But diplomats say that Washington is considering it.
"They haven't settled on a game plan yet," a council ambassador told Reuters. "They're considering all options. More sanctions, a resolution, a condemnation, it's all possible."

If the United States follows the example of previous U.S. administrations and presents its case at a public meeting of the 15-nation Security Council, it might be able to galvanize public support against doubters and critics who have suggested that the new charges against Iran border on the preposterous
.
That was the case during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson unveiled during a televised council meeting photos taken by U-2 spy planes of Soviet missiles and launch pads on Cuba and confronted Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin with the charges.
"Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed and is placing medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no?"
The Soviet envoy refused to give a definite answer, telling Stevenson: "I am not in an American courtroom."

"You are in the courtroom of world opinion right now, and you can answer yes or no," Stevenson responded. He never got a clear answer from Zorin, and the Soviet veto power made it impossible to get any formal Security Council action against the Soviets.
But Washington did win in the "courtroom of world opinion." On that same day, October 23, 1962, the Organization of American States unanimously backed the U.S. plan to impose a naval blockade around Cuba to stop further missile shipments.

In 1983, U.S. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick played an audio recording of a Soviet interceptor pilot involved in the shooting down of Korean Airlines flight 007 over the Sea of Japan, which killed all 269 passengers and crew. Afterwards, it was impossible for the Soviets to deny their involvement.
'GOOD THEATER'
But recent history also shows that if the evidence is weak, skeptics on the Security Council -- the only U.N. body with the power to impose sanctions or authorize military force -- will prevail and Washington will be unable to bring it around.
That was the case with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 2003 speech to the Security Council in which he presented U.S. intelligence on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's alleged nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs.

Perhaps attempting to follow in Stevenson's and Kirkpatrick's footsteps, Powell's speech had visual aids -- images, audio recordings, even a small vial of white powder that was intended to look like enough deadly anthrax to kill off the entire U.S. Senate.
That speech, based on evidence that is now known to have been erroneous, did nothing to sway the skeptical French, Russians and Germans, who eventually forced the frustrated United States and Britain to abandon their efforts to secure a U.N. green light for their March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
David Bosco, a professor at American University in Washington, said using the council can be good "public theater" but may not convince doubting council members.
"Dramatic public presentations are usually more effective at swaying domestic public opinion than other states," he said. "Powell's speech didn't change the dynamic on the council in terms of support for the war, but it was a major hit at home."
U.N. diplomats said that Washington was already doing the preliminary work to persuade council members of the strength of a case that a number of analysts have raised questions about. Many analysts say they find it hard to believe that the Quds force would behave as stupidly as the case documents suggest.

Envoys said a team of experts from the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration and State and Justice Departments joined Rice and her Saudi counterpart on Wednesday to brief council members on the details of the plot.
The allegations against Iran made a strong impression on some diplomats but clearly did not sway all of them.
French Ambassador Gerard Araud described the allegations as "credible and very convincing," adding that France would be "very supportive" of any U.S. initiative at the council.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow would "look at it very, very seriously." Chinese envoy Li Baodong said only that he had "sent it back to Beijing."

Council diplomats said that Washington had dispatched teams of CIA, FBI and DEA experts to Moscow and Beijing, which are among the council's most skeptical members and hold a veto.
Brazil's U.N. Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti appeared less than convinced, however, suggesting to reporters the U.S. judicial process should be allowed to play out first.
Council envoys say the other two members of the five-nation "BRICS" club of powerful emerging market nations -- India and South Africa -- might also be hard sells for Washington. The BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and the South Africa -- have resisted Western efforts on Syria and other issues.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)