“The British government [has] behaved in a hostile manner toward our people for the past five decades.’’
It's been longer than that. BP was a beneficiary of the CIA's Operation Ajax that overthrew the democratically-elected Mossadegh in 1953 and installed the Shah.
"British embassy stormed in Iran; Six staffers held briefly in protest against sanctions" November 30, 2011|By Alan Cowell and Rick Gladstone, New York Times
LONDON - Iranian protesters screaming “death to England’’ stormed the vast British embassy compound and a diplomatic residence in Tehran yesterday, torched at least one vehicle, tore down the Union Jack, ransacked offices, and briefly held six staff members captive during a protest, officially approved by the Iranian government, of economic sanctions against Iran’s suspect nuclear energy program.
The assault, reported by Iranian news services and broadcast on Iranian television, ended after several hours and constituted the most serious breach between Britain and Iran in more than 20 years. The images evoked memories of the siege of the US Embassy after the Iranian revolution of 1979.
Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, expressed outrage. He said Britain held Iran’s government responsible and promised “other, further, and serious consequences.’’
War coming.
Hague said both British compounds had been stormed by “several hundred people, putting the safety of our diplomats and their families at risk and causing extensive damage to our property.’’ All British staff were accounted for, he said. The status of some local staff was unclear.
The US and EU also condemned the assault, and the UN Security Council issued a statement calling upon Iranian authorities to protect foreign diplomats and embassy property.
President Obama, speaking about the assault during a White House meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, said he was “deeply concerned’’ that Iranian authorities had permitted it to happen.
“For rioters essentially to be able to overrun the embassy and set it on fire is an indication that the Iranian government is not taking its international obligations seriously,’’ Obama said.
Iranian news agencies said about 50 protesters invaded the offices of the enormous walled compound housing the British Embassy and its manicured grounds, in the heart of Tehran, while thousands of student protesters rallied outside, and that 200 to 300 others got into a residence complex for diplomatic staffers a few miles north of the embassy, called Qolhak Garden. The residence complex also includes a school.
Gee, that sounds strange. It's almost as if they were let in, isn't it? Remember, there a still agents of the British that were part of the attempted Green Revolution coup in Iran.
Of course, it is not possible they could be behind this, for if they were I'm sure my agenda-pushing, war-promoting paper would have told me.
Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency said police freed six British staff members who had been surrounded by the Qolhak Garden protesters and that 12 of those protesters were arrested.
After the demonstration was brought under control by Iranian police and security officers, Iran’s Foreign Ministry expressed “regret’’ over the assault, said the violence had been carried out by a small number of protesters in spite of preventive efforts, and that wrongdoers would be prosecuted, Agence France-Presse reported.
Fars said the police used tear gas to disperse some protesters on the embassy grounds and that some protesters were injured. The agency said the protest ended after Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Radan, the deputy police chief, warned protesters that they would face a “tough police confrontation’’ if they did not leave the embassy.
Earlier, television images showed protesters, some with Molotov cocktails, tearing through offices strewn with papers, and at least one vehicle inside the compound on fire.
It was the most serious violence targeting the British embassy in Tehran since relations were restored in 1990 after a break caused by Iranian outrage over the 1988 publication of the “The Satanic Verses’’ by Salman Rushdie, the Indian-British novelist. The book caused a furor in the Islamic world because it was considered sacrilegious.
Although the official Iranian media characterized the protest as a genuine outburst of popular anger against Britain that may have gotten out of hand, it was clear that the event had been staged by the authorities, who in the past have orchestrated attacks on embassies, intervening only at the last minute.
We get the same thing here in AmeriKa. We call them news broadcasts.
Video from the scene showed riot police standing by during the assault and later helping protesters inside the embassy grounds go back to the street outside. Press TV, a government news website, said police dispersed the demonstrators and were “protecting the embassy.’’
A day before the embassy assault, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei singled out Britain in a speech as an icon of Western imperialist arrogance.
On Monday, the Guardian Council, an Iranian clerical body that has oversight on bills passed by Parliament, approved a bill to expel Britain’s ambassador and downgrade diplomatic contacts because of the British sanctions.
So what sneaky s*** has Britain been up to in Iran? They have a hand in the assassinations and bombings?
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"UK pulls diplomats from Iran; Orders Iranian embassy staff out of London" December 01, 2011|By Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post
TEHRAN - Britain withdrew all its diplomatic staff from Iran yesterday and ordered the Iranian Embassy in London closed, after supporters of Iran’s ruling clerics ransacked the British Embassy and residential compound.
Then the Iranians got what they wanted, right?
European Union member countries were scheduled to meet in Brussels today to decide whether their embassies would remain open in light of the attack, which was a stark escalation of long-simmering anti-Western sentiment. Norway closed its embassy for the day yesterday, and Germany’s Foreign Office announced that it was recalling its ambassador from Iran for consultations....
Although some Iranian politicians yesterday lauded the looters’ actions, Iran’s Foreign Ministry, headed by an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemned the embassy seizure. The conflicting reactions illustrated the growing rift in Iran between two rival blocs: forces loyal to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and those aligned with Ahmadinejad.
Yeah, now Hitler, 'er, Ahmadinejad is the West's friend, blah, blah, blah.
And what do Iranian protesters have in common with Wall Street bankers?
Ali Larijani, Iran’s speaker of Parliament, said the demonstrators represented Iranians’ feelings toward Britain.
“They say that the students’ behavior was ‘shameful,’ ’’ Larijani said yesterday, referring to British reactions to the storming of the compounds. “It is the British government’s behavior which is shameful because they have behaved in a hostile manner toward our people for the past five decades,’’ he added, according to the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency.
I'm ashamed that this is what I must pass on to you as news, dear readers.
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