Iran's parliament voted on Sunday to reduce diplomatic relations with Britain, with one lawmaker warning that Iranians angered by London's latest sanctions could storm the British embassy as they did to the US mission in 1979.
The bill, if it passes one further legislative hurdle, will oblige the government to downgrade ties within two weeks, forcing the ambassador out and leaving the British embassy to be run by a charge d'affaires. It comes less than a week after London banned all British financial institutions from doing business with their Iranian counterparts, including the Central Bank of Iran, as part of a new wave of sanctions western countries are imposing over Tehran's nuclear programme.
By announcing its moves ahead of other European Union countries, Britain - which Iranians often refer to as "the old fox" - is first in the firing line for retaliation by Tehran, but lawmakers said they would push to cut ties with other EU countries if, as expected, they follow London's lead. "The legislative branch is observing the behaviour of the British government and this is just the beginning of the road," speaker Ali Larijani told parliament. Lawmakers who spoke out against the bill did so because they deemed it not strong enough.
"This plan should be firmer and stronger against Britain," Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash told the house. "Having relations with Britain, even with one representative, is a total betrayal and we should padlock the British embassy."
Another member went even further, invoking the storming of the US embassy - dubbed the "den of spies" - by students in the 1979 Islamic revolution. The hostage crisis lasted for 444 days and set the tone for rock-bottom relations between Tehran and Washington ever since.
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