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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Protestors stone British embassy in Tehran |
| 2004-05-16 |
| Several hundred Islamic students threw rocks at the British embassy in Tehran and tried to storm the building in a protest Sunday over the American-led occupation of Iraq, but were turned back by riot police, an AFP correspondent said. "Death to America, death to Britain and death to Israel," chanted the protestors, marshalled by hardliner volunteer militiamen, as they burned the three countries’ flags. "We will protest here every day as long as the prisoners in Abu Ghraib are not freed," read a sign held aloft by the crowd, in reference to the US-led jail at the centre of allegations of abuse of detainees by coalition troops. The demonstrators also denounced clashes between US forces and radical militiamen in the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala, which are revered by Shias in Iran as well as Iraq. Large numbers of riot police who were deployed nearby moved in after the protest turned violent. Iran’s supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Sunday condemned the US operations in Najaf and Karbala. In the absence of a US embassy here, the British mission offers the best focus for demonstrators wanting to protest the year-old occupation of Iraq by the US-led coalition. Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran after radical students stormed the embassy and took its staff hostage in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution. But London has followed its European Union partners in pursuing a policy of constructive dialogue with the Islamic regime. US officials regularly rail against Iranian interference in Iraq, but British officials have taken a more nuanced line, even inviting a foreign ministry delegation to Baghdad to try to broker an end to the month-old stand-off between coalition troops and Shia radicals. Iraq’s Iranian-backed Shia religious parties have been careful to maintain good working relations with the occupation authorities and have joined the interim bodies established by the coalition. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |
| #1 but British officials have taken a more nuanced line, hmmmmmmmm |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-05-16 10:11:30 PM |