UK fury as Iran arrests staff for ’role in unrest’

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Iran has arrested eight local British embassy staff, triggering London's fury and further exacerbating tensions with the West over the post-election turmoil in the Islamic republic. The latest backlash against what Iranian leaders have said is foreign "meddling" came as opposition leaders continued to defy the regime, rejecting a panel set up to hold a partial recount in the disputed presidential vote.  

Iran has repeatedly accused Britain and the U.S. of stoking the unrest that swept the country after the June 12 election that returned hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power amid complaints it was rigged. The state-run Fars news agency said the eight staff members were arrested for having a "considerable role" in the riots, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. The British Foreign Office said the Tehran embassy has a staff of more than 100, including at least 70 locally-hired Iranians.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is on the Greek island of Corfu for a foreign ministers’ meeting, said London had protested strongly to Tehran over the arrests, which he described as "harassment and intimidation of a kind which is quite unacceptable." "The idea that the British Embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran. ... is wholly without foundation," The Associated Press quoted Miliband as saying.

In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said any further harassment of British Embassy employees would be met with "a strong and united EU response."

Top Iranian leader blasts West

Still, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei added fuel to the fire, accusing European and U.S. officials of making "idiotic comments" about Iran, state television reported on Sunday. "Some European and American officials with their idiotic comments about Iran are speaking as if all their own problems have been resolved and Iran remains the only issue for them," he was quoted as saying at a meeting with judicial officials.

"They ignore the fact that the Iranian people believe that wherever they (Western leaders) step politically, that spot becomes soiled," he said.

Last week, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned Iran might downgrade ties with Britain after the two governments expelled diplomats in a tit-for-tat move. Iran has also expelled the BBC correspondent in Tehran, arrested a British-Greek journalist, and accused a number of other British passport-holders of involvement in riots.

As the diplomatic tensions intensified between Iran and the West, Iranian opposition leaders continue to challenge the regime, rejecting a panel set up by election supervisory body the Guardians Council to hold a partial recount. Both Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's strongest rival, and another defeated candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, are demanding a new vote because of what they say are widespread irregularities.

The Guardians Council, an unelected body of 12 jurists and clerics, said it would create a committee of political figures and candidate representatives to recount 10 percent of the ballots and draw up a report on the vote. But Karroubi, a ex-parliament speaker who came a distant fourth, said in a letter to the council that a partial recount was "not enough" and called for an independent panel to probe "all aspects of the election."

Mousavi also rejected the panel outright on Saturday, while the other defeated candidate, Mohsen Rezai, has agreed to be part of the committee if Mousavi and Karroubi also agree to nominate representatives to the body.

On Saturday, President Ahmadinejad vowed to take a tougher approach toward the West during his second term on Saturday, saying the U.S. administration’s criticism of his crackdown on dissent after the election shows its offer of talks on Iran’s nuclear program isn’t genuine. "If they think the government will be influenced, they’re wrong," he said.