France Reduces Tehran Embassy Staff after Attack on British Mission
France is to pull out part of its diplomatic staff from Tehran following the ransacking of Britain's embassy this week by a pro-regime mob, adding to the international backlash against an increasingly defensive Iran.
The decision -- a temporary precaution, French diplomats said Saturday -- underlined the seriousness of the crisis developing between Iran and the West amid the ratcheting up of sanctions over Tehran's controversial nuclear efforts.
Britain has already evacuated all staff from its Tehran embassy following Tuesday's rampage, and ordered Iran's mission in London closed.
The expelled Iranian diplomats arrived back in Tehran early on Saturday, passing through airport service corridors to avoid media -- and a pro-regime welcoming crowd of 150 yelling "Death to Britain."
The European Union on Thursday slapped extra sanctions on Iran and warned more could be on the way because of the embassy assault, while the U.S. Congress is poised to pass a law aimed at disrupting Iran's oil revenues processed through its central bank.
Political tensions are rising in tandem with speculation that Israel is mulling air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, with or without U.S. backing.
France's decision to downsize its diplomatic representation came after the French, German, Dutch and Italian ambassadors were recalled for consultations on the British embassy assault.
Several of France's embassy personnel will be pulled out in the next few days along with all families and dependents of all the staff, French diplomats told Agence France Presse.
They did not give precise figures for how many of the roughly 30 diplomats in Tehran would go.
The 700-strong French community in Tehran -- mostly Iranian-French dual citizens -- has not received any instructions.
"Now the British government is trying to involve other European countries in our bilateral issue," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to the Fars news agency.
"But we have told the Europeans not to trouble relations with Iran because of Britain," he said.
Iranian officials have been defiant over the degrading British ties, saying a parliamentary vote before the ransacking of the British embassy to expel Britain's ambassador over strengthened Western sanctions was justified.
But on Saturday, a senior cleric sought to disavow any connection between Iran's regime and the hundreds of pro-regime militia members who trashed the embassy and another British diplomatic compound.
"It is highly likely that in these situations, elements infiltrate our devoted youth in order to cause some damage and to spark worldwide propaganda against us, which is what they did," Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi said in a statement on his website.
Shirazi implicitly rejected British assertions the embassy was assaulted with the backing and connivance of the authorities, while warning Iran could be hurt by the backlash.
"It is important to note that sometimes certain actions overstep the law... And we could pay a high price for it," he said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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