 The deputy president of the Iranian parliament's culture commission, has described Britain's embassy in Tehran as "a nest of spies." Saiid Abu Taleb, in an interview with the Iranian newsagency ILNA, also branded British diplomats as "spies sent to our country to inform their government" on conditions in the Islamic Republic. "Every day that we delay shutting down the embassy, which is in reality a nest of spies, we are causing ourselves great harm," said Abu Taleb, adding that the British diplomats should also be expelled from Iran.
| Sounds like they're working themselves up for another embassy takeover. I wonder what Jimmy Carter's reaction will be when it happens? |
In recent months stone-pelting crowds have on several occasions targeted the British embassy and the residence of Britain's ambassador to Iran. In one incident a petrol bomb was also hurled at the embassy. Tension between London and Tehran came to a head in October when British prime minister Tony Blair accused Iran of a hand in the killing of British soldiers in southern Iraq by Shiite extremists. Anti-British sentiment has been fuelled in recent weeks by Interior Ministry statements alleging that London has supported revolts by ethnic Arabs in southern Iran. Before being hanged in the southern city of Ahwaz, two ethnic Arab men accused of carrying out anti-government attacks, in a televised confession said they had acted on behalf of a "foreign power". The statement was widely believed to refer to Britain.
| "Har har! The foolish turbans will never suspect that it was really us, the Evil Overlords of Vanuatu!" |
Many observers have highlighted the similiarities between the current campaign against Britain's diplomatic mission in Iran and the wave of anti-American sentiment preceeding the 1979 occupation of the US embassy in Tehran.
| Reeeeeally? But the similarities are so subtle! |
On that occasion, radical students held US embassy staff hostage for 444 days before releasing them.
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