Britain Expels 2 Iranian Diplomats In Retaliation

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It's been a diplomatic game of tit for tat between Great Britain and Iran this week. The British government said yesterday that it was expelling two Iranian diplomats. That move came after two British diplomats were told to leave Tehran. The expulsions mark the latest chapter in the long history of difficult relations between the two countries. NPR's Rob Gifford reports from London.

ROB GIFFORD: Iran accused the two British diplomats of activities incompatible with their diplomatic status, a charge rejected by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Brown in parliament yesterday condemned the expulsions, calling them completely unjustified. But he did continue to hold out the possibility of cooperation with Tehran.

Prime Minister GORDON BROWN (Great Britain): I'm disappointed that Iran has placed us in this position, but we will continue to seek good relations with Iran and to call for the regime to respect the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Iranian people.

GIFFORD: At least five other European Union countries have called in Iranian envoys to protest against the Tehran government's crackdown. But it's Britain that has borne the brunt of Iran's attacks in recent days. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last, week when criticizing interference by foreign powers, called Britain the most treacherous of Iran's enemies.

So whatever happened to the Great Satan, the United States? Some commentators suggest Iran may have been singling out Britain as a scapegoat because it has not wanted to reject out of hand recent overtures by President Barack Obama.

But Heidi Walcher, lecturer in Iranian history at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University, says Britain has a long history of often covert involvement in Iran and as a result there has always been suspicion of British motives.

Ms. HEIDI WALCHER (London University): There definitely is this very negative image of Britain in Iran. If today as a European you go to Iran and you say you're a German, everyone thinks, oh, this is great and they like you and they're very sympathetic. If you say you're British, you're invariably met with this kind of wall of antipathy and people are much less sympathetic.

GIFFORD: Walcher says the British played a major role in the 1953 coup usually attributed to CIA involvement that brought the Shah to power. British residents in Iran say there is a popular, sometimes humorous tendency to blame anything that goes wrong on the dastardly British. When Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands died protesting British presence in Ireland in 1981, Iran promptly renamed a major street near the British embassy in Tehran Bobby Sands Street just to provoke the British.

Another cause of recent Iranian government anger has been the establishment six months ago of a Persian language television news channel on the BBC broadcasting to Iran from London. The BBC's Jamshid Bazega(ph) rejects accusations that the channel is in any way fomenting trouble or supporting demonstrations, and he says the BBC's popularity in Iran reflects the changing views of the West among the younger generation of Iranians.

Mr. JAMSHID BAZEGA (BBC): Mostly in the past they're thinking the U.K. is behind everything. But the new generation don't think so. And, you know, our viewers and the number of viewers and listeners and visitors inside Iran who are coming to us to receive the latest news and the most accurate and impartial news show that they don't think so.

GIFFORD: Meanwhile, in response to Iranian government criticism of Britain and in the spirit of British anything you can do we can do better tabloid headlines, the Sun newspaper here yesterday published a picture of Iran's supreme leader Khamenei under the headline: The Liar-tollah.

Rob Gifford, NPR News, London.

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