Iran detains local British embassy staff

Iran has detained several local British embassy staff, sparking a new row with Britain yesterday that underscored the hardline leadership's effort 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.

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.

Mr 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.

"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 US of inciting the turmoil. Both countries deny it. A senior Western diplomat said Ayatollah Khamenei, Mr 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 EU 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.

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

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.