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Iran Frees 5 Out of 8 Arrested British Embassy Staff For Role In Riots
30 June 2009
Iran said on Monday it has freed five of the local British embassy staff it arrested on accusations of stoking post-election unrest. "Eight people were arrested. Five were freed and three are still being interrogated," ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said at a press conference in Tehran. Iranian media reported Sunday that eight local staff at the British embassy had been detained for their "considerable role" in post-election riots. Ghashghavi also said that Iran has no current plans to close embassies or downgrade diplomatic ties with foreign nations. "There is no plan at the moment to close any embassy or downgrade ties with them," Ghashghavi said when asked if Tehran planned to close the British embassy. The Fars news agency, announcing the arrests on Sunday, said the British embassy staffer were accused of playing a "considerable role" in the unrest that swept Iran after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 12 presidential election. Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie accused the British embassy of sending local staff "undercover among rioters in order to push its own agenda," the official IRNA news agency reported. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Monday demanded the release of the four locally-engaged British embassy staff in Tehran, saying Iran's behavior was "unacceptable, unjustified and without foundation". "We are deeply disappointed that Iran has detained some of Britain's staff in Iran," Brown said at a press conference. "Some of them have now been released, but we must now see that the others are set free to resume their work. "Iran's actions, first the expulsion of two diplomats, and now the arrest of a number of our locally engaged staff, is unacceptable, unjustified, and without foundation. And we with our international partners will continue to make this clear to the Iranian regime." Britain confirmed Monday that five of the nine British embassy staff arrested in Tehran had been released but denounced the continuing detention of four people. Speaking alongside Brown at a Downing Street press conference, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said: "I would like to express my full solidarity with the United Kingdom. Intimidation and harassment are unacceptable and they will be met with a strong collective European response." Moreover, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Sunday that London had protested strongly over the arrests, which he described as "harassment and intimidation" and dismissed that the embassy was behind the demonstrations. EU nations also vowed to respond to any harassment of diplomats in Iran with a "strong and collective response", Miliband told reporters at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Corfu. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki urged Britain and the EU not to take rash action over the arrests. "Don't continue with this losing game because this is neither in the interests of the British people nor the two countries' relations that have (already) been damaged because of the British government's behavior," he said. He also called for European countries and officials to "revise their stand" towards Iran. Britain and Iran have already expelled diplomats in tit-for-tat moves last week.
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