Iranian protesters on Tuesday stormed the British embassy in Tehran, removing the mission’s flag and ransacking offices. The protesters were seen throwing stones at embassy windows, breaking them, and one was seen climbing the wall with a looted portrait of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. The intrusion occurred as ranks of Iranian police in riot gear stood by, doing nothing. Outside the embassy’s walls, several hundred other demonstrators were gathered, some of them chanting “Death to Britain” and demanding the British ambassador leave the country immediately. The demonstration came a day after Iran passed a law to expel the ambassador within the next two weeks in retaliation for new British sanctions that cut off all ties with Iran’s financial sector. About 300 Iranian protesters entered a second British diplomatic compound in Tehran, which hosts residences for British diplomats and French, German and British schools.
The state news agency IRNA said the protesters had foreigners there in their control — that they were described as “protecting.” Britain has threatened to act “robustly” if Iran’s foreign ministry follows through by kicking out its ambassador, Dominick Chilcott, who took up his post only last month. BRITAIN ‘OUTRAGED’ AT STORMING OF EMBASSY IN IRAN: Britain said Tuesday it was “outraged” by the storming of its embassy in Tehran by Iranian protesters, saying it was “utterly unacceptable and we condemn it”. A Foreign Office spokesman urged the Iranian government to “act urgently to bring the situation under control”, citing its duty under international law to protect diplomats and embassies.
Iranians storm British embassy
