The British Council has stopped work in Iran because of "intimidation and harassment" of its staff by the Iranian government, it will be announced today. The cultural and educational centre decided to close its doors in Tehran after its entire local staff of 16 was summoned by security officials to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office at the end of December and ordered to resign.
"An order of that kind in present circumstances in Iran is not something you can refuse ... If not explicit, there was an implicit 'or else'," the British Council's chief executive, Martin Davidson, told the Guardian. "Once the security apparatus begins to display threatening behaviour to local members of staff who have no real protection, then that is unacceptable."
The British Council's withdrawal from Iran marks the lowest point in Iranian-UK relations since Iran seized 15 British sailors and marines two years ago. Even during that crisis the Tehran office continued to operate, providing a library, English language learning centre, and guidance for Iranians applying to study in Britain.
Today's announcement has echoes of the closure of offices in two Russian cities a year ago, under similar pressure. But the British Council has continued its work in Moscow despite the cooling of relations. There are also British Council centres in Zimbabwe and Burma. Iran is the only country in which the council has been stopped from working altogether.
"This is really the culmination of two years of pressure from the authorities on our operations. They first refused to issue visas for our UK director to go in. They then began to put pressure on our Iranian partners to slow down or cancel work with us," Davidson said. Shortly before the staff were ordered to resign, passports were confiscated from two employees as they attempted to leave the country to attend what the British Council described as a "routine meeting". Davidson said he was hoping for an opportunity to talk to the Iranian government about resuming work there. An Iranian embassy spokesman in London said yesterday that he had been unable to get a response from Tehran to questions about the British Council's closure.
The British Council was invited to open an office in 2001 and has organised joint educational events and exhibitions on the arts and climate change. There are 2,000 Iranian students in Britain and at the time of the closure of its Tehran office, the British Council was working with the state education system, organising a course for 40 teacher trainers. It was about to launch a co-operation scheme involving universities in both countries. Noting that Iran was operating cultural centres in Britain, Davidson said: "Cultural exchange should be a two-way street, not just one-way."
Distrust of Britain in Iranian official circles goes back to colonial days. State-sponsored media often accuse British intelligence of being behind acts of sabotage and attacks by rebels in its provinces, and Britain is blamed for rallying UN security council support for sanctions resolutions aimed at Iran's nuclear programme.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has highlighted the role of seminaries in fulfilling the needs of society.
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Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I thought "Islamic Education" consisted of memorizing the Koran and nothing else.
That makes "Islamic Education', an oxymoron.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/05/2009 20:16 Comments ||
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A senior official from the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon says five rockets have been discovered near the country's border with Israel.
Milos Strugar says the rockets were discovered along with a launching pad by a patrol of peacekeepers Wednesday near the town of Naqoura where the UN force is headquartered. They were not set to be fired.
Strugar said Lebanese army units were called in and an investigation was underway.
The militant group Hezbollah, which has a strong presence in south Lebanon, has a large rocket arsenal, but is not believed to have used them against Israel since the end of the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Rockets from Lebanon were fired into Israel on two occasions during Israel's Gaza offensive last month. Palestinian militant groups are suspected of having fired them.
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Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009 00:00 ||
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Former president Mohammad Khatami, who for two terms led failed attempts to give Iranians more legal freedoms and end Iran's international isolation, has decided to run in upcoming elections, aides, political allies and family members said Tuesday.
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Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The British Council has stopped work in Iran because of "intimidation and harassment" of its staff by the Iranian government, it will be announced today. The cultural and educational centre decided to close its doors in Tehran after its entire local staff of 16 was summoned by security officials to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's office at the end of December and ordered to resign.
A senior official from the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon says five rockets have been discovered near the country's border with Israel. 
