British embassy staff to be released, says Iranian ambassador

Jul 4, 2009, 7:33 GMT

Tehran - Iran's ambassador to Germany has voiced hope that the two detained Iranian staffers of the British embassy in Tehran would soon be released, official news agency IRNA reported Saturday.

IRNA quoted Ali-Reza Sheikh-Attar as saying that, after the release of seven of the arrested local employees, the two remaining workers would be free 'in coming days.'

Nine Iranian employees of the British embassy were arrested by Iranian security due to their alleged involvement in the recent protests against fraud in the June 12 presidential election.

Seven of them have been freed but two of them are still in jail.

The head of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said at Friday prayers that the two have confessed and 'will definitely face trial.'

The comments by the ayatollah led to concerted diplomatic protest and summoning of Iranian ambassadors to all the European Union capitals on Friday.

The Iranian foreign ministry is expected to issue a statement on the latest developments.

Observers believe that the foreign ministry will clarify that political statements by Friday prayer leaders are not necessarily the official standpoint of the Iranian government.

Both Jannati and the Guardian Council as a legislative body are not part of the government or judiciary and therefore not qualified to comment on political or judicial issues. Friday prayer leaders however often use the weekly ceremony as platform for political statements.

The Iranian ambassador to Berlin, however, said that, according to the Vienna Convention, local employees of an embassy were subject to their own country's laws and had no political immunity.

The arrest and detention of the Iranian embassy staffers have led to a bilateral crisis that has now expanded to the whole EU.

While Iran considers revising diplomatic ties with Britain, France and Germany, the EU is planning to impose visa bans on Iranian officials and summon its ambassadors back from Tehran.