{"id":3290,"date":"2009-07-03T10:00:59","date_gmt":"2009-07-03T14:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=3290"},"modified":"2009-07-03T10:00:59","modified_gmt":"2009-07-03T14:00:59","slug":"bad-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/07\/03\/bad-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"bad E.U…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iran Cleric Says British Embassy Staff to Stand Trial<\/strong><\/a>
New York Times<\/strong>
By ALAN COWELL and STEPHEN CASTLE
July 3, 2009 <\/div>\n

PARIS — Brushing aside British and European efforts to seek the release of local British Embassy staff members held in Tehran, the Iranian authorities indicated Friday that they planned to put some of them on trial — a move that deepened a diplomatic crisis and could provoke the withdrawal of ambassadors.<\/p>\n

In London, the Foreign Office said it was urgently checking reports that the Iranian authorities planned to put two of its local employees on trial. Nine staff members were seized after the unrest sparked by Iran’s disputed presidential elections on June 12.<\/p>\n

Hours after the Iranian threat, the European Union seemed to hold back from an out-and-out showdown, resolving to summon Iranian ambassadors in all 27 countries to send “a strong message of protest against the detention of British Embassy local staff and to demand their immediate release,” a European diplomat said, speaking in return for anonymity. <\/p>\n

Other measures — such as a ban on issuing visas to Iranian travelers and a pullout of European ambassadors — would be considered depending on how the crisis unfolded, the diplomat said.<\/p>\n

The Iranian authorities accused the local employees of fomenting and orchestrating protests, but pro-democracy Iranians ascribed the violence on the streets to a widespread crackdown by government security forces.<\/p>\n

In London, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office, speaking in return for customary anonymity under civil service rules, said: “We are very concerned by these reports and are investigating. Allegations that our staff are involved in fomenting unrest are wholly without foundation. We will be seeking an urgent explanation from the Iranians”…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
As I recall, our Republican Congressmen were yelling bloody murder for Obama to join the EU in verbally attacking the Iranian government. He did, finally, say something about their brutality in the streets. But Obama’s point was that we shouldn’t meddle in their affairs. Now, I haven’t heard it yet, but I anticipate those same critics to make cries that Obama’s non-comments were cowardice or some other weakness driven thing.<\/div>\n

My understanding of why Obama mostly kept his mouth shut was that he has good sense. By criticizing the Iranian government, the E.U. played in to the Iranian Cleric’s Standard Operating Procedure: Rally support by attacking the west. Remember Jimmy Carter’s debacle. Now we’ll have marching in the streets, burning the British Embassy, etc. All very familiar.<\/p>\n

My favorite operative old saying for this situation is, "Never accept an invitation to go crazy<\/strong><\/font>" [It’s my favorite, because I made it up all by myself].<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran Cleric Says British Embassy Staff to Stand Trial New York Times By ALAN COWELL and STEPHEN CASTLE July 3, 2009 PARIS — Brushing aside British and European efforts to seek the release of local British Embassy staff members held in Tehran, the Iranian authorities indicated Friday that they planned to put some of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}