Iran tensions on a knife-edge after nine UK embassy workers arrested

IRAN further increased its attempts to demonise Britain yesterday, after nine employees at the UK embassy in Tehran were arrested.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband branded the action "completely unacceptable", while the EU warned of a "strong and collective response" to harassment.

The latest dispute emerged yesterday morning when Iranian media announced that the embassy staff had been detained due to their "considerable role" in unrest which followed contested elections on 12 June.

Tehran has accused London of interfering in its internal affairs by criticising the heavy-handed reaction to protests, sparking a round of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.

The regime has also railed against the BBC, claiming it influenced the recent unrest, especially via its Farsi-language broadcasts, which are trusted by many Iranians.

Last night, riot police clashed with up to 3,000 protesters near a mosque in north Tehran, using tear gas and truncheons to break up the first demonstration in five days, witnesses said.

North Tehran is a base of support for opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has alleged there was massive fraud in the presidential election and insists that he, and not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is the rightful winner. He is insisting the election be re-run, rejecting a partial recount being proposed by the government.

The Foreign Office said the embassy has a staff of more than 100, including at least 70 locally hired Iranians. Last week, Britain sent home 12 dependents of embassy staff because the protests had disrupted their lives.

Speaking at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Corfu, Mr Miliband said: "This is harassment and intimidation of a kind which is quite unacceptable.

"These are hard-working diplomatic staff. 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."

The EU foreign ministers later issued a joint statement demanding that Iran abide by international rules protecting local diplomatic staff, and release all those arrested. It is not known how many are still being detained.

The group said they wanted to make it clear to the Iranian authorities "that harassment or intimidation of foreign or Iranian staff working in embassies will be met with a strong and collective EU response".

Iran's government has tried to discredit opposition supporters by alleging they have been directed by the West.

On Friday, a senior cleric, Ahmed Khatami, lashed out at Britain in a nationally televised sermon. "In this unrest, Britons have behaved very mischievously and it is fair to add the slogan of 'down with England' to the slogan of 'down with USA,'" he said.

Britain and the US were behind the 1953 coup that toppled prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq, who nationalised Iran's oil industry. Britain had almost complete control over Iran's oil industry for decades.

Yesterday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for national unity, appealing to both sides, even though he has come down firmly on the side of Ahmadinejad in the elections row. "I admonish both sides not to stoke the emotions of the young or pit the people against each other," he said. "Our people are made of one fabric."