Miliband rebukes Iran after arrest of British embassy employees
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has issued a sharp rebuke to Iran after the arrests, which are part of a campaign by the clerical regime in Iran against what it has portrayed as foreign interference in its politics.
The employees were arrested on suspicion of playing a role in the demonstrations that followed Iran's disputed presidential election. Those demonstrations, which saw calls for a re-run amid allegations of widespread vote rigging, have now largely fizzled out after a crackdown by regime.Mr Miliband dismissed the allegations of British involvement in the demonstrations as preposterous. He called for the detainees to be released immediately, saying: "This is harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable. We want to see [them] released unharmed. These are hard-working diplomatic staff and the idea that the British Embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran in recent weeks is wholly without foundation."
Fars, a semi-official Iranian news agency, first announced the arrests and said the staff had helped foment protests against the results of the June 12 election, which returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline president, to a second term. "Local employees at the British embassy who had a considerable role in recent unrest were taken into custody," Fars said. "This group played an active role in provoking recent unrest."
The embassy employees were rounded up on Saturday and a number were released yesterday. A relative of one of those detained said the staff member had disappeared: "He went out yesterday morning and I have been unable to reach him since his mobile phone is switched off. Since then I have had no news of his whereabouts."
Mr Miliband said Britain had made a strong protest to the Iranian authorities and had raised the issue with his European Union counterparts gathering in Corfu.
Last week both countries threw out mid-ranking diplomats in a tit-for-tat round of expulsions, but British officials are wary of being drawn into a protracted dispute with Iran which could serve to distract attention from the domestic pressure to overturn the result of the election.
Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, has repeatedly rejected offers of a partial recount of ballots in a show of unprecedented defiance against the leadership. But the regime has rebuffed popular pressure for a new election, instead turning the blame on foreign governments.
Although demonstrations have been quelled, there is growing evidence of a fierce power struggle at the highest levels of the clerical leadership.
It has emerged that a central figure in the battle for supremacy, Grand Ayatollah Javadi Amoli, has criticised the handling of the election.
Ayatollah Amoli is a leading backer of an overhaul of the system by which Iran has a Supreme Leader. He has been a proponent of a collective leadership to exercise power at the highest level. Hashemi Rafsanjani, another senior power broker who is at odds with Ayatollah Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader, is said to be lobbying for a three-man supreme leadership body that would include Ayatollah Khamenei but dilute his power. link...
