الرئيسية
Iranian protesters demonstrate outside the British
embassy in Tehran on November 29. A senior Iranian cleric has sought to
put distance between Tehran's officials and a pro-regime mob that
ransacked Britain's embassy this week, while admitting his country could
pay a "high price" for the assault.(AFP/File/Atta Kenare)
By AFP
TEHRAN (AFP) - A senior Iranian cleric on Saturday sought to
put distance between Tehran's officials and a pro-regime mob that
ransacked Britain's embassy this week, while admitting his country could
pay a "high price" for the assault.
"There is no doubt that
Britain is one of the oldest enemies of Iran... but young
revolutionaries should not go beyond the law," IRNA news agency quoted
Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi as saying in a statement.
"I advise them not to act without the permission of the supreme leader and officials," he added.
The
message -- the first disavowal of the protests by a senior Iranian
figure -- came a day after Britain's evacuated ambassador, Dominick
Chilcott, told British media the attack Tuesday on his embassy could not
have happened without "the acquiescence and support of the state."
Shirazi
implicitly denied that by blaming the embassy attack on overzealous
youths, echoing some official assertions that the protesters had acted
spontaneously and without orders.
"It is important to note that
sometimes certain actions overstep the law.... And we could pay a high
price for it," the cleric said.
He advised protesters to be
"vigilant" and to not hand excuses to Britain and other enemies to
further punish Iran, which he said had the upper hand in developments in
the Middle East.
The comments seem to hint at an effort to halt a
new rising anti-British campaign in Iran after London, along with other
Western nations, placed sanctions against Tehran's financial sector
over its nuclear programme.
Tuesday's embassy assault prompted Britain to evacuate all its diplomats and order the closure of the Iranian embassy in London.
France on Saturday announced it was reducing the number of its diplomats in Tehran as a temporary "precautionary measure".
The
Iranian foreign ministry expressed its "regret" after the attack. But
parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani justified the violence as a
legitimate response to "the domineering policy" of Britain.
Foreign
media in Tehran on Thursday were told covering all anti-British,
pro-regime demonstrations was now forbidden -- an unprecedented
restriction that adds to many other reporting curbs already in place.