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
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Tehran Times reports Wednesday evening that Swiss Ambassador Livia Leu Agosti was summoned Tuesday, along with the Saudi Arabian ambassador to hear complaints about US support for Saudi troops going to Bahrain, at the latter’s request.
Switzerland represents US interests in Iran. The ambassador promised to share Iran’s concerns with the US, the newspaper reports.
“The Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that Swiss Ambassador to Teheran Livia Leu Agosti was summoned over the US support for foreign military intervention in Bahrain and ‘baseless’ remarks by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates against Iran during his recent visit to Manama.”
Bahrain’s ruling royal family is Sunni Muslim, as is the Saudi royal family, but the majority of the population in Bahrain is Shi’ite Muslim, as is Iran.
Perceptions about the US role vary from Tehran’s criticism of US support to a Washington Post‘s editorial writer’s view that the Obama administration in the US is not seen as supportive.
Iranian authorities have arrested an unknown number of Christian missionaries, according to state-run IRNA news agency 5 January. The governor of Tehran province, Morteza Tamadon, is quoted as saying those arrested were “tabshiri” or missionaries: “Just like the Taliban”, he said, “who have inserted themselves into Islam like a parasite, they have crafted a movement with Britain’s backing in the name of Christianity”. He promised more arrests to come.
It was unclear whether the detainees were Iranians or foreigners. Christians are a minority recognized by the Iranian constitution, along with Zoroastrians and Jews. Proselytizing is not allowed and under Iranian Sharia law, apostasy, or converting from Islam, is punishable by death.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey says she is “relieved” at the release of Sarah Shourd from an Iranian prison, the Swiss government announced 14 September.
Swiss diplomats were heavily involved in the negotiations to free the three hikers who Iran says were on Iranian territory near the border with Iraq when they were detained in 2009.
Switzerland represents US interests in Tehran, since the USA has had no diplomatic relations with Iran since 1979.
An Iranian nuclear scientist, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, has been killed by a remote-controlled bomb planted on a motorcycle in front of his home in northern Tehran, official state media reported. The foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday 12 January that initial investigations pointed to Israel, America and their agents in a “terrorist attack”, state media IRIB reported. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
It is not known if Ali Mohammed was involved in the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the country’s uranium enrichment programme. He has written and posted papers on quantum mechanics on the Internet, and he was a lecturer at Tehran University.
Tensions have mounted concerning Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, with Western powers accusing Iran of trying to secretly build nuclear weapons. Iran accused the US of kidnapping an Iranian nuclear scientist in Saudi Arabia in May 2009, while he was on pilgrimage to Mecca. In 2007, a former deputy defense minister disappeared while visiting Istanbul, Turkey. Iran has accused the US and Israel of complicity in his disappearance.
Links to other sites: BBC, CS Monitor, Washington Post
Thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran and Shiraz 4 November to voice their opposition to the government, as Iran celebrated the seizing of the US embassy and 52 embassy staff 30 years ago. The annual celebration to vilify the US became the occasion for many Iranians to shout “down with the dictator”, to protest the contested and controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. Ahmadinejad’s opponent, Mir Hossein Moussavi was under de facto house arrest Wednesday 4 November to prevent him from participating in the rallies.
Home-made video showed scenes of militia armed with batons storming into crowds of protesters, beating people. Many were arrested, and led off. The media in Iran is limited in its ability to report independently. BBC, Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post
Iran has reportedly released 140 detainees from northwestern Tehran’s notorious Evin prison after they posted bail, according to an Iranian news agency. The detainees, arrested during violent protests after the contested presidential election 12 June, were freed following a visit to the prison by members of a parliamentary commission on security. The visit was reportedly prompted by the death of the son of a prominent conservative politician. Leading clerics and some members of the establishment have called for the release of several hundred detainees. Another 150 across the country could be released soon. Al-Jazeera, CNN
US vice president Joe Biden told ABC television Sunday 5 July that the US could not restrain Israel from taking military action if it felt threatened by a nuclear build-up in Iran. Biden has just returned from a Middle East trip. Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel will not allow Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons. Israel bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981. The Sunday Times of London reported 5 July that secret talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia raised the possibility that Israel would not be hindered if it flew through Saudi airspace on its way to Iran. BBC, Reuters
Update 22:55 The protests by thousands in Iran over disputed election results continued during the weekend despite a call Friday by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to end them. The Iranian government said Sunday that 10 more people had died, bringing the death toll to 19, and dozens more were injured, but journalists, including foreign media, are “are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran” reports Reuters. Amnesty International says that numbers are “perilously hard” to verify.
Iran has complained of Western interference in its internal affairs.
The BBC’s resident correspondent has been asked to leave, a Dubai TV station office remains closed and 23 local journalists and bloggers have reportedly been detained. The streets of Teheran were reportedly quiet Sunday, but there were reports of gunfire in northern suburbs, home to many followers of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, who has called for more protests. Al Jazeera, BBC, The Globe & Mail, NPR, Xinhua
Seven people were killed at the close of one of the largest rallies in Tehran, Iran since the 1979 revolution swept the Shah from power. Defying an official ban, hundreds of thousands of supporters of Mir Hussein Moussavi protested in Tehran. At the end, as people were walking home “peacefully” according to state media, “thugs attacked a military post” and were repelled. Seven people died and several more wounded. Moussavi, the losing candidate in presidential elections last 12 June, claims the vote was flawed and should be anulled. The guardian council, the highest executive instance in Iran, on Monday 15 June called the results “provisional”, while Ayatollah Khameini, the supreme leader, urged Moussavi in a meeting “to pursue protest calmly, through legal channels”, reports the pro-government Tehran Times. CNN, BBC
Roxana Saberi, 32, began a hunger strike the week of 21 April in protest of her detainment in Tehran’s Evin prison, according to her father, Reza Saberi. Saberi ended her strike, Monday 4 April, when her parents visited and pleaded with her to begin eating again. The Iranian-American journalist was convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison in a trial, that was closed to the public, last month. CNN
