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Iran
Recalls Ambassador, Britain Closes Tehran Embassy
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Iranian
police guard the British Embassy in Tehran
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TEHRAN,
September 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Already strained
relations between Britain and Iran took a serious turn for the worse
Wednesday, September 3, after Iran recalled its ambassador from London
and Britain closed its Tehran embassy following a shooting attack.
"Around
five shots were fired at the main building of the British embassy from
Ferdossi Street at around 11:40 (0710 GMT)," an Embassy spokesman
said, adding that no one was hurt, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
"The
embassy is closed until further notice," he added, saying
"we are in close contact with the Iranian authorities."
In
London, a spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed the shooting,
saying "the bullets hit offices on the first and second floors of
the building."
Following
the incident, some 20 Iranian police officers were deployed in front
of the building.
The
British embassy in Iran was the target of demonstrations during the
U.S. and British war on Iraq.
On
Monday, September 1, around 100 Iranians burned British, American and
Israeli flags outside the embassy, chanting slogans demanding the
expulsion of British Ambassador Richard Dalton.
Ambassador
Recalled
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London
said the recalling of Sarmadi was not "a downgrading of
relations"
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The
incident came hours after Tehran confirmed that it had recalled its
ambassador from London for consultations amid an escalating diplomatic
dispute.
The
British Foreign Office said Iranian Ambassador Morteza Sarmadi had
returned to his country, but that "this is not a downgrading of
relations."
Iranian
foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said "Sarmadi is here
for some consultations," without saying how long the diplomat
would remain in Iran.
British
authorities arrested
on August 22 former Iranian ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour
on an extradition request from Buenos Aires accusing him of allegedly
taking part in a 1994 bombing of a Jewish center there that killed 85
people.
Iran
has called Soleimanpur's arrest warrant "null and void", broken
off economic and cultural cooperation with Argentina and hinted it might
expel British Ambassador to Tehran Richard Dalton over the matter.
The
BBC's Jim Muir in Tehran says the shooting will be an
embarrassment to the Iranian authorities - it will also make it more
difficult for them to approach London on the former ambassador's
issue.
He
added that with ongoing U.S.-led pressure over Tehran's alleged
nuclear weapons program, this is no time for Iran to lose friends.
A
diplomat in London, quoted by The Guardian newspaper,
said Sarmadi had officially returned for consultations following a
hastily arranged meeting with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
Monday, September 1.
The
source said Sarmadi "may not return" after failing to win
any compromise from Straw over the detention of Soleimanpour, who has
been ordered by a British judge to remain in custody until a court
appearance on September 19.
Iranian
Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani, who flew to London to discuss
Soleimanpour's arrest with Straw last week, on Tuesday summoned Dalton
and criticized the British judge and prosecution, reported the Iranian
official IRNA news agency.
The
spokesman for parliament's national security and foreign policy
committee, Jafar Golbaz, was quoted as saying after a meeting with
Ahani: "We will not accept under any circumstance that the London
court hands over Soleimanpour to Argentina."
Some
western diplomats in Tehran do not think Iran will go as far as to
expel the British ambassador over the Soleimanpour affair for fear of
worsening its current tense relations with the West.
Britain
and Iran resumed full diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level in
1999 after a long break following the overthrow of the shah in the
1979 Islamic revolution.
Meanwhile,
Tehran's city council has asked Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad to consider
changing the name of Argentina Square to Martyr Ayatollah Mohammad
Baqer al-Hakim Square, in honor of the Iraqi Shiite cleric assassinated
last week in Iraq. Hakim spent 23 years in exile in Iran.
Since
the start of March, Argentine judge Juan Jose Galeano, who is
investigating the Buenos Aires bombing, has issued a dozen arrest
warrants for Iranians allegedly implicated in the attack.
Iran
has repeatedly denied links to the Jewish centre bombing and that of
the Israeli embassy in Argentina in March 1992 which killed 29 and
injured 200, and has denounced "conspiracies" against it by
the "Zionist regime".
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