British Ambassador to Iran Rob Macaire was temporarily arrested Saturday evening at the scene of anti-regime protests in Tehran, the country’s Tasnim news agency reported,
The agency said Macaire was attempting “to organize, instigate and direct some radical and destructive action.” Reports on social media indicated he may have been taking photographs of the protest.
Tasnim said Macair was released after several hours but could be summoned later for further questioning.
The British government reacted with outrage, with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab saying “The arrest of our ambassador in Tehran without grounds or explanation is a flagrant violation of international law.”
Raab said the Iranian government was “at a cross-roads moment. It can continue its march towards pariah status with all the political and economic isolation that entails, or take steps to deescalate tensions and engage in a diplomatic path forwards.”
There were reports of thousands of people protesting in the capital after the government admitted to have accidentally shot down a Ukrainian plane that crashed earlier this week, killing all 176 people aboard.
Police dispersed the protesters with tear gas, according to reports and videos on social media. There were also reports of numerous arrests.
The regime's security units resorted to heavy use of tear gas against peaceful gatherings held for the victims of the Ukraine Int'l Airlines flight #PS752 that was downed by the IRGC.#IranProtests #Iranpic.twitter.com/Wq5i7yvqrE
— İran Bülteni (@iranbulten) January 11, 2020
The plane was shot down early Wednesday, hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing US troops in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in an American airstrike in Baghdad. No one was hurt in the attack on the US bases.
Dozens of those who died were young Iranian students traveling to their studies in Canada.
Some reports indicated that protests also spread beyond Tehran, and that some demonstrators were tearing up pictures of Soleimani.
The belated admission of responsibility raised a host of new questions, such as who authorized the strike on the plane and why Iran did not shut down its international airport or airspace when it was bracing for a US reprisal.
It also undermined the credibility of information provided by senior officials, who for three days had adamantly dismissed allegations of a missile strike as Western propaganda. Bulldozers had cleared debris from the site after the crash, in an apparent effort to cover up what had happened.
Iran’s acknowledgment also altered the narrative around its confrontation with the US in a way that could anger the Iranian public. Iran had promised harsh revenge after Soleimani’s death, but instead of killing American soldiers, its forces downed a civilian plane in which most passengers were Iranian and none survived.
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