GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Britain has reacted sharply to the attack on its embassy in the Iranian capital of Iran Tuesday 29 November, by an angry crowd that police were unable to control. The embassy compound was over-run, including diplomats homes and offices. An emergency meeting of the UK government was called to deal with one of the worst diplomatic crises in recent years between Iran and Britain. The Guardian describes the scene: “The crowd ripped the gilded UK crest off the embassy, pulled down the union flag and replaced it with the Iranian one, and threw satellite dishes off the roofs of embassy buildings. They also smashed windows and scattered thousands of papers in the street in front of the embassy, where British, US and Israeli flags were set alight.”
Aljazeera reports that the crowd was mainly students who called the British Embassy a spy hideout for the US.
The Ottawa Citizen, with reports from the Telegraph and Reuters, writes “Chanting “death to England”, the protesters – many of them organized by a student branch of the pro-regime Basiji militia – burned the British flag and set a car on fire in protest at sanctions imposed last week on Iran’s banking system.”
The situation was under control by 18:00 Tuesday and the UK government says all staff have been accounted for; there were no injuries.
Video, Aljazeera
Colombia and Venezuela have re-established diplomatic relations with leaders from both countries agreeing to do more to ease each other’s worries.
The Colombian government, through prickly relations with its predecessor Alvaro Uribe, has been accusing Venezuela of harboring dangerous guerrillas in its territory.
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has accused Colombia of planning an invasion and – Uribe in particular – of trying to stir up a war in his last days of office.
The new Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, sworn in Saturday, was previously Uribe’s defense minister.
Former Geneva UN representative suffers heart attack after taking office
Angelino Garzon
Hours after being sworn in, Vice President Angelino Garzon suffered a heart attack.
Doctors say Garzon, 63, will return to work in a month, after undergoing a four-hour emergency heart bypass this week.
Garzon who worked as the Colombian representative before the UN in Geneva, left Switzerland at the beginning of 2010 to join the presidential campaign.
Under Colombian law, there is no mechanism to replace a vice president in the case of temporary absence. In case of permanent vacancy the Constitution only provides for a stand-in.
Additional details: Colombia Reports in English and SurTitulares in Spanish
Basel, Switzerland(GenevaLunch) – Switzerland qualified for the finals of the 2010 World Cup by finishing top of their group after achieving a 0-0 draw against Israel. Their task was made easier when Yadin was sent off for two yellow cards, leaving the Swiss with an extra man for the final half hour. Overall the game was mediocre but the result was sufficient for automatic qualification. The other European teams to qualify are Denmark, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy and the Netherlands. And Turkey beat Armenia 2-0 in a match that followed the signing of agreements designed to normalize diplomatic and business relations between the two countries.
Turkish football fans have been asked to be on their best behaviour and show traditional national hospitality during a football World Cup qualifiying match in Bursa, Turkey Wednesday 14 October against long-time rivals Armenia.The match comes less than a week after the two countries restored full diplomatic relations in a ceremony in Zurich, after a century of troubled relations.
Ticket sales are tightly controlled, and the rowdiest group of fans received a personal appeal from the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul. Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan will attend the match. His Turkish counterpart attended a match Yerewan Armenialast year, in Yerewan, Armenia, opening up what has been called “football diplomacy”. Reuters, Washington Post
correction 11:45 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government is officially mum on whether or not the event will take place, but the US State Department and the Kremlin in Russia have both announced that they are sending top officials to a ceremony in Zurich Saturday 10 October where Armenia and Turkey will formally establish diplomatic and bilateral relations. The signing of two Protocols will end a standoff that has at times flared into serious tensions, which has existed since Turkey recognized Armenia’s independence in 1991 without then establishing diplomatic relations.
Switzerland has served as mediator in the long process of talks that has finally brought the two together.
A senior US State Department official at a press briefing Thursday 8 October said that while the Swiss have not officially announced the meeting, which is opposed by some groups in both Turkey and Armenia, “They have invited the parties, and the parties have agreed to come, including Secretary [Hillary] Clinton.” The foreign ministers of France and Russia are also expected, he says.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Turkey and Armenia will sign two Protocols to normalize their relations 11 October at a ceremony in Switzerland, but details have not yet been released by the Swiss government, which has acted as mediator in the lengthy process. The Swiss federal government announced 1 September that the two countries had initialed two Protocols and were starting six-week internal consultations on these: “Protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations” and the “Protocol on the development of bilateral relations.” The Protocols must still be ratified by the parliaments of both countries.
The ceremony will be brief, with the parties shaking hands and signing the Protocols.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Turkey and Armenia have “agreed on a comprehensive framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations in a mutually satisfactory manner,” the two note in a brief formal statement issued jointly with Switzerland Thursday morning 23 April. Switzerland has served as mediator for the two countries, which “have been working intensively with a view to normalizing their bilateral relations and developing them in a spirit of good-neighborliness, and mutual respect, and thus to promoting peace, security and stability in the whole region. The two parties have achieved tangible progress and mutual understanding in this process and they have In this context, a road-map has been identified. This agreed basis provides a positive prospect for the on-going process.”
