From Reuters:
Iranian protesters stormed two British diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Tuesday, smashing windows, hurling petrol bombs and burning the British flag in protest against sanctions imposed by London.
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Britain said it was outraged by the attacks and warned of “serious consequences.”
The attacks come at a time of rising diplomatic tension between Iran and Western nations who last week imposed fresh sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program which they believe is aimed at achieving the capability of making an atomic bomb.
Iran, the world’s fifth biggest oil exporter, says it only wants nuclear plants to generate electricity.
The embassy storming is also a clear sign of deepening political infighting within Iran’s ruling hardline elites, with the conservative-led parliament attempting to force the hand of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and expel the British ambassador.
“Radicals in Iran and in the West are always in favor of crisis … Such radical hardliners in Iran will use the crisis to unite people and also to blame the crisis for the fading economy,” said political analyst Hasan Sedghi.
Several dozen protesters broke away from a crowd of a few hundred outside the main British embassy compound in downtown Tehran, scaled the gates, broke the locks and went inside.
Protesters pulled down the British flag, burned it, and put up the Iranian flag, Iranian news agencies and news pictures showed. Inside, the demonstrators smashed windows of office and residential quarters and set a car ablaze, news pictures showed.
One took a framed picture of Queen Elizabeth, state TV showed. Others carried the royal crest out through the embassy gate as police stood by, pictures carried by the Fars news agency showed.
Demonstrators waved flags symbolizing martyrdom and held portraits of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has the final say on matters of state in Iran.
Another group of protesters broke into a second British compound at Qolhak in north Tehran, the IRNA state news agency said. Once the embassy’s summer quarters, the sprawling, tree-lined compound is now used to house diplomatic staff.
An Iranian report said six British embassy staff had been briefly held by the protesters. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the situation had been “confusing” and that he would not have called them “hostages.”
“Police freed the six people working for the British embassy in Qolhak garden,” Iran’s Fars news agency said.
A German school next to the Qolhak compound was also damaged, the German government said.
Read the rest of the story here.
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