The British embassy in Tehran has been attacked. A mob threw petrol bombs, burned the Union flag and at least one vehicle and smashed a portrait of the Queen. Earlier reports said that at the compound where the diplomats live, six were held hostage for several hours – although that was downplayed by the UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague.
In response to this attack Hague said that, notwithstanding the fact that he phoned the Iranian foreign minister to tell him how angry he was, and summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires to the Foreign Office to tell him how angry he was,
‘clearly there will be other, further, and serious consequences’.
Golly. ‘Serious consequences’, eh? His words irresistibly call to mind King Lear raging:
‘I will have such revenges on you both/That all the world shall –I will do such things,–/What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be/The terrors of the earth.’
How the Iranians must be chortling. All those years when they were blowing British soldiers to smithereens through their roadside bombs in Iraq and training up the Taleban to kill British and coalition soldiers in Afghanistan, Iran suffered zero consequences from Britain.
When during 2007 the Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized 15 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines and held them for 13 days before releasing them, Iran suffered zero consequences from Britain – whose sailors grovelled to the Iranians instead.
When Iran’s proxies attacked Israel from Gaza and supplied thousands of rockets to threaten Israel from Lebanon, Iran suffered zero consequences from Britain – which attacked Israel instead for blocking the peace process.
All the years when Iran steadily progressed towards building its nuclear weapon in defiance of international law and in open pursuit of genocide against the Jews and regional domination, Iran suffered zero consequences of any significance from Britain.
One week ago, Britain finally got a little bit tougher when, galvanised from its torpor by the International Atomic Energy Agency which astounded everyone by actually telling the truth that Iran was working on producing a nuclear weapon, the UK government banned all British financial institutions from doing business with their Iranian counterparts, including the Central Bank of Iran. To which the Iranians have now responded with violence.
Now Hague is reacting as if that’s the last thing anyone expected. Yet on Sunday, the Iranian parliament overwhelmingly called for the expulsion of the British ambassador. And in that very debate an Iranian MP actually called for the British embassy to be stormed and diplomats taken hostage.
