Iran embassy arrests
June 28, 2009
"Out of nine people arrested, five of them have been released and the rest are being interrogated," Hassan Ghashghavi, spokesperson of the Iranian foreign ministry, told a newsconference broadcasted on state televion.
He added that British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki had spoken on the phone Sunday evening.
Ghashghavi also said that there were no current plans to close embassies or downgrade diplomatic ties with foreign nations.
Several local Britsh embassy staff had been detained over the weekend over accusations of stoking the post-election unrest that has rocked Iran after the disputed June 12 presidential elections.
On Sunday both London and the EU have called upon Tehran to immediately release all local embassy staff.
At the sidelines of an informal EU foreign ministers meeting both Miliband and Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, called on Iranian authorities to release all embassy local staff.
Immediate release requested
"We have made clear to Iranian authorities that the arrest and intimidation of foreign and Iranian staff working at EU embassies will me met with a strong and collective response," Jan Kohout said.
Kohout said that while the EU respected Iran's sovereignty it was concerned about the ongoing internal political crisis.
"The EU strongly denounces arbitrary arrests and repression against members of the civil society...we call on authorities to stop the hostilities against EU member states and to release an EU journalist still in custody," he said.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the ministers at a meeting on the Greek island of Corfu unanimously called for the immediate release of British embassy local staff detained by Iranian authorities.
Iran has repeatedly accused Britain and the United States of stoking the unrest that swept the country after the June 12 election, which returned hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power amid complaints or irregularities at the polls.
The international community continues to voice alarm at the violent crackdown on opposition protesters in the election aftermath, but the Iranian government has hit back, accusing Western nations - particularly the United States, Britain, France and Germany - of meddling in the country's internal affairs.
ai/AP/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Trinity Hartman