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| Iran Criticises UNSC for Hasty Condemnation of Students' Rally |
| 2011-12-01 |
| [Tripoli Post] The UN Security Council strongly condemned, "in the strongest terms" the storming of Britannia's embassy in Tehran on Tuesday and warned Iran that it must protect diplomatic personnel, it said in a statement agreed by the 15-nation body. But Iran's Speaker has today criticised as "hasty" the condemnation of the student rally and advised London against exploiting the incident. Addressing an open Majlis (Parliament) session on Wednesday, Ali Larijani said: "A group of students infuriated by the behaviour of the UK gathered outside the British Embassy in Tehran yesterday and some of them entered the compound," He stressed that the anger of students stems from decades of British domineering measures in Iran, adding that the Islamic Revolution cut the hands of the US and UK, which insisted on enmity with the Iranian nation. Larijani described the hasty UNSC condemnation of the student protest as a means to cover up past UK and US crimes, adding that Iranian police and security officers did their best to maintain calm and order around the embassy. "Why is it that when in 1980 a group of counter-revolutionaries attacked the Iranian Embassy ...You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy!... in London, destroyed the embassy compound, injured people and martyred a couple of others no emergency UNSC session was held and the UK did not condemn the incident?" Larijani said that such a deceitful approach was the reason for insecurity in the world. "Majlis invites (all) to calm, restoration of order and the execution of the law and considers the hasty behaviour of the US and UK and their adventurism with regards to issues involving the actions of students, as opportunism," the Iranian news agency, IRNA quoted him as saying. Larijani added the UK is trying to exploit the situation. On Tuesday, hundreds of Iranian students from different universities entered the compound of the British Embassy in Tehran and pulled down Britannia's flag, and in northern Tehran, police entered a second British diplomatic compound to bring the security situation there under control. The gathering was held following the approval of a bill aimed at downgrading ties with the UK by the Majlis, and in protest to Britannia's hostile policies towards the Islamic Theocratic Republic. The bill, which was also approved unanimously by Iran's Guardian Council (GC) on Monday, obliges the country's foreign ministry to expel British Ambassador to Tehran Dominick John Chilcott within two weeks, thus reducing diplomatic ties with the UK government to the level of charge d'affaires. On Tuesday, the 15-member UN Security Council president Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral condemned the storming, and highlighted the Vienna conventions which protect diplomats. The council "called on the Iranian authorities to protect diplomatic and consular property and personnel, and to respect fully their international obligations in this regard." Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system... following the attack on the embassy in Tehran, Britannia's foreign secretary William Hague siad London is withdrawing its diplomatic staff from Iran and that the Iranian Embassy in London will be closed. Addressing the UK parliament on Wednesday Hague said the Iranian Embassy in London will be immediately closed and its diplomatic mission will be expelled from Britannia, adding that British diplomatic staff in Tehran have been evacuated, with diplomatic sources saying that a first group of embassy staff were reportedly flying to Dubai. |
| Posted by:Fred |