Bomb blast near BP, BA offices in Iran

A small bomb exploded outside the offices of BP and British Airways in Tehran yesterday, causing some damage but no casualties, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which appeared similar to a bombing outside the same offices in August. The perpetrators of the August blast have not been identified.

British-Iranian diplomatic relations are experiencing a rough patch, with Tehran obstructing British imports and accusing London of fomenting Arab separatist bomb attacks this year in the south-western oil province of Khuzestan.

"It may be that today's bombing... was a response to the anti-Iranian stance taken by some countries," Deputy Interior Ministry Ali Ahmadi told the ILNA labour news agency.

Britain has taken a lead role in trying to persuade Iran to stop making atomic fuel, which Washington fears could be used in nuclear weapons, and has accused Iran of aiding Iraqi rebels.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has denounced a recent call by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's destruction, said yesterday there was no intention to invade Iran or threaten it militarily.

"What we are however saying is that the Iranian government has got to understand that the international community simply will not put up with their continued breach of the proper and normal standards of behaviour we expect of a member of the United Nations," Mr Blair told parliament.

In Tehran, police spokesman Mehdi Ahmadi said a hand-made bomb had exploded, breaking windows but not hurting anyone.

An employee at the building in a busy Tehran street said the device had gone off in a rubbish bin near a 10th-floor lift. "It was like the previous time... The glass entrance door of BP was smashed and the BP office has been evacuated," he said. A British Airways spokesman in London attributed the blast to a "percussion device... designed to create more noise than damage".