U.K. shuts Iran embassy, expels diplomats

The U.K. closed the Iranian embassy in London and told its staff to leave the country in 48 hours on Wednesday, Reuters reports. The move comes after a mob of hard-line youth forced its way into the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, trashing British government property and burning the Union Jack. Though police intervened to chase out the protesters, the attack could not have been carried out without some degree of complacency from the Iranian regime, Foreign Secretary William Hague said. The incident represents the worst attack on foreign diplomats in Iran since the storming of the U.S. embassy during the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Reuters