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News number: 9007275539

18:40 | 2011-11-30

Foriegn Policy

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Occupy Embassy Protests (15)

Larijani: Students Represent Iran's Public Opinion

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani blasted the British government for its long-term animosities towards Tehran, and said occupation of the British embassy in Tehran by the university students reflected the Iranian nation's views and feelings with regard to London.



"The move made by a number of students signified the atmosphere reining the Iranian public opinion," Larijani told reporters on Wednesday.

"Our people have been suffering from the British government's behavior for the last several decades," he said, adding that if London has any doubts in this regard, Tehran can "conduct an opinion poll among the Iranians to show their views on London's inimical behavior throughout the last decades".

His remarks came after thousands of angry students on Tuesday raided and occupied the British embassy in Tehran in protest at London's hostile policies against Iran, and called for a full cut in relations between the two countries.

Larijani also referred to the Sunday approval of the parliament on downgrading relations with Britain, and said, "Lowering the political ties with the British government is a response to its abnormal behavior."

The Iranian legislators in an open session of the parliament on Sunday approved the bill of a law on downgrading relations with Britain with 179 yes votes, 4 oppositions and 11 abstentions. The 4 oppositions demanded a full cut of ties with London.

The Guardian Council - a powerful vetting body tasked with studying parliament approvals to make sure they are not against Islamic rules and the Constitution - announced its approval over the parliament ratification Monday.

As the parliament approval calls for downgrading ambassadorial ties with Britain to the level of charge d'affaires, Tehran is now preparing to expel the British Ambassador to Iran Dominick Chilcott.

Chilcott took his post as the new Tehran ambassador in October and after several months of tension between the two capitals. The British embassy was meanwhile led by the charge d'affaires, Jane Marriott.

The parliament approval came a week after the US and Britain targeted Iranian financial sectors with new punitive measures, including sanctions on Iran's Central Bank and petrochemical industry.

The sanction against CBI and Iran's petrochemical industry was adopted in a unilateral move by the US, Canada and Britain outside the UN Security Council as other council members, specially Russia and China, had earlier warned against any fresh punitive measure, including sanctions, against Iran.

The British government has also embarked on delisting the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from its list of terrorist groups.

The Iranian lawmakers initially started drafting a bill to downgrade ties with London after Britain's direct involvement in stirring post-election unrests in Iran in 2009, but they intensified and accelerated the move after former British Envoy to Tehran Simon Gass criticized the human rights situation in Iran.

"Today, International Human Rights Day is highlighting the cases of those people around the world who stand up for the rights of others - the lawyers, journalists and NGO workers who place themselves at risk to defend their countrymen," Gass said in a memo published by the British Embassy in Tehran on December 9.

"Nowhere are they under greater threat than in Iran. Since last year human rights defenders have been harassed and imprisoned," Gass added.

Following Britain's support for a group of wild demonstrators who disrespected Islamic sanctities and damaged private and public amenities and properties in Tehran on December 27, 2009, members of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission drafted bill of a law requiring the country's Foreign Ministry to cut relations with Britain completely.

The British government's blatant stance and repeated remarks in support of the last year unrests inside Iran and London's espionage operations and financial and media support for the opposition groups are among the reasons mentioned in the bill for cutting ties with Britain.

Iran has repeatedly accused the West of stoking post-election unrests, singling out Britain and the US for meddling. Tehran expelled two British diplomats and arrested a number of local staffs of the British embassy in Tehran after documents and evidence substantiated London's interfering role in stirring post-election riots in Iran.