Iran sparks new row with Britain over election

Iran has detained several local British embassy staff, sparking a new row with Britain on Sunday that underscored the hardline leadership's efforts to blame post-election unrest on foreign powers, not popular anger.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded the release of all the staff still held and said his European Union colleagues had agreed to a "strong, collective response" to any such "harassment and intimidation" against EU missions.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced what he called "interfering statements" by Western officials following the disputed presidential election on June 12.

"If the (Iranian) nation and officials are unanimous and united, then the temptations of international ill-wishers and interfering and cruel politicians will no longer have an impact," state radio quoted him as saying.

The West is at odds with Iran over its nuclear programme, as well as its handling of the unrest.

The United States, Britain and their allies have long urged Tehran to quit uranium enrichment, which they suspect is aimed at bomb-making. Iran says its programme is wholly peaceful.

The streets of Tehran have sunk back into a sullen calm since riot police and religious Basij militia crushed huge demonstrations in which at least 20 people were killed.

"Everybody is depressed, everybody is afraid," said one Mousavi voter in his 20s in northern Tehran.

The authorities, while taking tough action to snuff out any embers of protest, have repeatedly accused Britain and the United States of inciting the turmoil. Both countries deny it.

"Eight local employees at the British embassy who had a considerable role in recent unrest were taken into custody," the semi-official Fars news agency said, without saying when.

Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei confirmed several British embassy staff had been detained and some had been released, state radio reported, giving no details. He said the embassy had played a role in the unrest.

Miliband said about nine employees had been detained, but some had been freed. "The idea that the British Embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran in recent weeks is wholly without foundation," he told reporters at a conference in Corfu.

Britain and Iran have already expelled two of each other's diplomats since the election, which stirred Iran's most striking display of internal dissent since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

A senior Western diplomat said Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and their allies had achieved a short-term victory and were now determined to press their advantage over dissenters.

"It is a system which has been challenged and which now strikes back," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.

The European Union condemned Iran's suppression of post-election protesters and said it would meet any intimidation of its diplomatic staff with a "strong and collective response".

"Obviously the regime is trying to preserve its position by very harsh repression. But that cannot hide the fact that this is a weakened regime. It has lost legitimacy both internally and externally," said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country takes over the EU presidency on July 1.

Official results showing hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election by a landslide were greeted with disbelief by many Iranians, who agreed with complaints by the runner-up, Mirhossein Mousavi, that the vote was rigged.

Mousavi has repeated demands for the election to be rerun, in defiance of Khamenei who declared the poll fair, but his options for any further challenge appear to be dwindling.

The Guardian Council, Iran's top legislative body, is to give its final verdict on the election by Monday.

The 12-man body has offered a partial recount - rejected by Mousavi and fellow-candidate Mehdi Karoubi - but it has already described the poll as the healthiest since the revolution.

Influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, seen by analysts as a possible mediator in any effort to defuse the election row, called for a thorough examination of complaints.

He praised a decision by Khamenei last week to extend a deadline for the Guardian Council to look into objections by defeated candidates, the ISNA news agency reported.

"I hope those who are involved in this issue thoroughly and fairly review and study the legal complaints," Rafsanjani said.

Breaking his post-election silence, he described events after the vote as a conspiracy by suspicious elements aimed at dividing people and the Islamic system, and also targeting people's trust in it.

"Wherever the people entered the scene with full alertness, such plots were foiled," the ISNA and IRNA news agencies quoted him as saying, without elaborating.

Rafsanjani, who has occupied key posts since the founding of the Islamic Republic, backed Mousavi's election campaign and was fiercely criticised by Ahmadinejad on television.

Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani said during a visit to Algeria that the elections were a "bright point" that reflected democracy, and criticised "manipulation" by Western media. (Reuters)

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