UK envoy tells of fear as mob rampage in Iran embassy
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's ambassador to Iran described Friday how he took refuge while a mob rampaged through his embassy inTehran, smashing windows, tearing up portraits and starting fires, while seven staff were seized by protesters at a second compound.
Speaking three days after the attack by protesters on the British embassy in Iran that sparked a crisis in British-Iranian relations,Dominick Chilcott said he had feared he might be taken hostage as U.S. diplomats were in 1979.
Britain responded by shutting its embassy in Tehran and ordering the closure of Iran's embassy in London, expelling all Iranian diplomats who left the country Friday.
Chilcott told how protesters rampaged through the embassy building, removing a picture of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, mutilating portraits of previous British monarchs, damaging furniture, writing graffiti on walls and smashing up rooms in what he called "spiteful, mindless vandalism."
Protesters also took mobile phones and computers "anything that might give information about who you were talking to or what you were doing," he told Sky News.
Chilcott said Tuesday's protest was different to previous demonstrations at the embassy because the police stood back, adding that it was clear the demonstration had state support.
"It was quite frightening. In our compound we were locked in to the chancery building. We were up on the top floor in our safe area and the mob failed to get into the building," Chilcott, now back inBritain, told the BBC.
"We'd heard them trying to smash the doors and the windows down below but they couldn't get into our part of the building, except in one point where they got into one of the consular offices and started a fire. In the end it was the fire and the smoke ... which forced us out," he said.
By the time he and his staff came downstairs, the protesters had lost interest and moved to other buildings, he said.
HOSTAGE CRISIS
Asked if it had occurred to him that he might suffer the same fate as 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days by hardline students at the U.S. Embassy in Iran from 1979, Chilcott said: "It would be untrue to say that those thoughts don't go through your mind, of course, and you hope that that is not going to happen."
"We were in a completely new situation and how it was going to end was not predictable and the behaviour of the police was so strange that we weren't sure whose side they were on, if you like, and that didn't really give us much comfort," he said.
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2 comments:
The reasons for the storming of the British Embassy in Iran are twofold. First, Iranians have that 'anti-imperialist' schtick and long memories - Britain was the bad guy before the USA. Second, Britain suspended Iran's bank accounts as a result of the effect of the Jewish Lobby complaining about Iran getting nukes - of course only Jews are good enough to have such destructive weapons in that volatile reason.
Jay, Jay, Jay, a 1 track mind, a closed mind, the eternally misinformed & brainwashed Jew hater!!!!
I suspect that you grew up in a sheltered, very small town (probably in Oregon) that had very few Jews living there. As an adolescent or young adult you heard David Duke or got hold of a copy of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", a book that was proven to be a forgery, a Stalinist tool to promote hatred & hopefully the extermination of the Jewish people. Perhaps mommy & daddy forced you to go to church with them & you grew tired of hearing about sin, besides Christianity doesn't give you 72 dark eyed, big bosomed virgins as a reward for killing all of your imaginary enemies, nor does it allow sex slaves, "1 Hour wives" or women taken as plunder during battle.
Having read this book, your narrow minded, small town view of the world suddenly expanded & now you had a purpose, & more importantly you had a reason WHY you were not succeeding in America, & a reason why you were unsuccessful with women (all American women are whores, as you have said before in your comments).
Jay, you need to travel. You need to be exposed to life in the REAL world. You need to hang out with folks not dedicated to war, death, & destruction. You need to live in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, or any of the other Islamic "Paradises" on this planet.
Perhaps you could even visit Israel sometime, of course you should stay in Gaza with the so called "Palestinian" people - don't want to give those damn Jews a penny of your money. That might be rather difficult however, because Palestinians don't like Americans very much, even Muslim Americans. Actually they don't like visitors very much at all. Visitors to Israel however, would see that Arabs are represented in the Knesset, they would see Arabs allowed to freely worship at the mosques of their choosing (unlike Mecca & Medina who ban any non Muslim from stepping foot inside their city). They would see Arabs who CHOOSE to live in Israel rather than in any Arab country, because of the freedom they have in Israel.
Ooooh maybe the Palestinians wouldn't want you there because they wouldn't want you to see the 2brand new Mega-Shopping malls that were opened earlier this summer for the "oppressed" people of Gaza.
Yeah traveling outside your little circle of small town, closed minded, fanatics could definitely be dangerous for you. It might open your eyes.
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