UK Shuts Iran's Embassy, Kicks Out Diplomats

Iranian officials have 48 hours to leave London
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 30, 2011 9:00 AM CST
UK Shuts Iran's Embassy, Kicks Out Diplomats
Iranian protesters are silhouetted, as one of them chants slogans, while they stand on the gate of the British Embassy, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011.   (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The UK today announced "the immediate closure" of Iran's embassy in London following yesterday's invasion of the British embassy in Tehran—and it's not the only embassy to close. The AP reports that Norway has elected to shutter its embassy in the Iranian capital over security concerns. A foreign ministry rep explains that the decision "is in context with the attack on the British embassy yesterday."

In the UK, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has given Iranian diplomats 48 hours to exit and also blasted the Iranian government, the Wall Street Journal reports. "The idea that the Iranian authorities could not have protected our embassy or that this assault could have taken place without some degree of regime consent is fanciful," he said. British personnel have been pulled from Tehran; "it is not possible to maintain an embassy under these circumstance and these threats and actions," explained Hague. (More Iran stories.)

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