Iranian diplomats leave UK after protest violence

Iran's diplomats in London packed their bags and were due to fly home Friday as a deadline loomed for their expulsion following the storming of the British embassy in Tehran. Officials at the Iran Air office in London said the diplomats were due to leave on a chartered flight from the capital's Heathrow international airport at around 1600 GMT. Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament on Wednesday that he had given Iran's diplomats 48 hours to close the embassy and leave the country after the attack on Britain's mission in Tehran on Tuesday. The Iranian flag was still flying outside the Iranian embassy in an upscale area of west London ahead of the deadline but a stream of people could be seen carrying suitcases and boxes out of the premises. A removals van was also parked outside a residential annexe to the building, while a British policeman was stationed at the door of the embassy. "They (the diplomats) are leaving on a chartered plane from Heathrow at about 4 pm," an official at the Iran Air office in London told AFP, without giving further details. Hague's announcement was made shortly before 1400 GMT on Tuesday but Britain's Foreign Office would not confirm the exact deadline for the Iranian diplomats' departure or their travel arrangements. "We are not actually going into the time they are leaving for obvious security reasons," a Foreign Office spokesman said. Britain has also evacuated its diplomats from Iran and closed its embassy following the attack, which Hague said could not have happened without the Iranian regime's tacit consent. No one from the Iranian embassy was available for comment. The Tehran protest came after the Iranian parliament voted on Sunday to expel the British ambassador and reduce trade relations with Britain in retaliation for UK-led sanctions against Iran's banking sector. Hundreds of students rampaged for hours through Britain's two diplomatic compounds in Tehran, tearing down the Union Jack, ripping up pictures of Queen Elizabeth II and trashing offices. The European Union piled pressure on Iran following the attack, beefing up sanctions Thursday over Tehran's nuclear programme and threatening to hit its oil and finances next. Iranians staged a fresh anti-British demonstration in Tehran on Friday in support of the storming of the British compounds, the official IRNA news agency reported. After attending Friday prayers in Tehran University, worshippers flocked to central Enqelab (Revolution) Square, chanting "Death to Britain" and "(We) support the seizure of the second den of spies (the British embassy)," it said. They also condemned what they called Britain's hostile policies toward the Islamic republic, and finished up their demonstration by setting British and Israeli flags on fire. IRNA did not say how many people attended the rally. Foreign media in Tehran were told Thursday that covering all anti-British, pro-regime protests was now forbidden -- an unprecedented restriction that adds to many other reporting curbs already in place.