FM Spokesman: Mayor's legal action against British embassy

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed on Tuesday that the judiciary was investigating Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's accusation that 310 trees had been cut and burned down at a garden in Northern Tehran which has long been illegally occupied by the British embassy in the Iranian capital.Qalibaf said Britain's disregard for the environment at the compound in Tehran's leafy Qolhak neighborhood was an example of its historic hostility to Iran. "One of the darkest cases in the Iranian people's historical memories pertains to the British government," he said. "(Its) hostile behavior can be seen at the Qolhak Garden." Britain is resented by many Iranians for the way it exploited Iran oil in the early 20th century, supporting a US-backed military coup in 1953 and, most recently, colluding with anti-government protesters after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. On Monday, Qalibaf initiated a lawsuit against Britain over the ownership of the Qolhak Garden which is still occupied by the British embassy "illegally". "I order my colleagues in the Tehran municipality to send the British embassy's transgression case on Qolhak Garden to the Judiciary as soon as possible," Qalibaf said in a meeting with a number of Tehran municipality directors on Monday. He referred to Britain's animosities towards Iran during the past decades, and said everyone is aware that the British government has attempted a lot to harm Iran's national unity and territorial integrity and staged many other plots and conspiracies against Iran after the Islamic Revolution. Qalibaf reiterated that in addition to these inimical behaviors, the British embassy in Tehran has for a long time usurped the Qolhak Garden, which is a part of Iranian soil and the Iranian nation is entitled to take its ownership back. On Tuesday, Chairman of Tehran's city council Mehdi Chamran voiced support for Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's decision for suing the British embassy over its illegal occupation of a well-known garden in Northern Tehran. Chamran, who was addressing a public session of the city council on Tuesday, said the British embassy's ownership of the Qolhak Garden should be renounced, specially after the embassy staff cut and burnt 310 trees in the garden. "According to the national laws, the embassy should pay a 5 billion rials (approximately USD400,000) fine for cutting the trees and the garden should be confiscated in the interest of the people," he stated, reminding that the law covers all cases and lands across the country and does not just pertain to this single case. Tehran and the British embassy have been in quarrel over the ownership of the garden for years. Iran has called on the British mission to return the Qolhak Garden which has been possessed illegally since the Qajar Dynasty. Iran argues that the Qolhak Garden belonged to Iranian Qajar King Nassereddin Shah and that the British Council took possession of this garden by force. Some 162 members of the Iranian Parliament wrote a letter in 2006 to the then speaker, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, demanding an investigation over the ownership of the Qolhak Garden. The investigation team reported that the garden belongs to Iran completely. A meeting was organized in July 2007 to address the ownership of the compound. However the British side did not attend.