BICOM

Foreign Secretary William Hague said yesterday that Britain would expel all Iranian diplomats in London following the storming of the UK embassy in Tehran on Tuesday. Iranian diplomats of all levels were given 48 hours to leave the country. Hague said Tehran should be “ashamed” of the events that took place. He added: “If any country makes it impossible for us to operate on their soil they cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here.”

Hague also told Parliament yesterday that Iranian diplomats across the European Union had been summoned to receive strong protests over the incident. France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands said they were recalling their ambassadors from Tehran for consultations.

Relations between Iran and Britain have been steadily deteriorated and have now been downgraded to the lowest level.

In response to Hague’s announcement, Iran’s parliament Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Chairman Aladdin Burucerdi said yesterday that the UK would suffer the consequences for its decision to expel the diplomats. “We recommend that other European countries avoid following in Britain’s and the Unites States’ footsteps,” Burucerdi said. “The parliament approved downgrading the diplomatic relations with Britain but Iran’s public is pleased that the British diplomats are no longer in Tehran.”

In further developments, EU Foreign Ministers will meet in Brussels today to discuss Europe’s response to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report that suggested that Iran was working on nuclear weapons capabilities. The ministers plan to add 180 names to a list of people and organisations targeted by pan-European sanctions, while the decision on how much economic pressure to apply on Iran has not yet been decided. However, the storming of the British embassy in Tehran will provide a strong impetus for European governments pushing for tough sanctions on Iran, in particular a contentious embargo on Iranian oil. French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero has already said that Paris would push foreign ministers in Brussels to look at sanctions beyond what had already been agreed, especially proposals made by President Nicolas Sarkozy to freeze the central bank’s assets and to ban oil imports.