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Iranian riot policemen stand guard outside the British embassy in Tehran on June 15 during a protest by supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against European interference in Iran's election results. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for the release of four locally-engaged British embassy staff in Tehran, saying Iran's behaviour was "unacceptable" and "unjustified".
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PARIS (EJP)---The European Jewish Congress (EJC) called on the European Union to pull ambassadors of all 27 EU nations from Iran to protest the detention of Iranian staff at the British embassy in Tehran.
As the EU debates whether to remove the ambassadors from the Iranian capital at Britain’s request, the EJC urged the EU “to act responsibly, hold Iran accountable for its actions and to take strong measures in a very definitive manner.”
European diplomats said Wednesday that they had made no formal decision to order their envoys home, but that the measure was an option for the European Union, Iran’s biggest trading partner.
Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, said that the Europeans “must act in a single strong voice and stand up to Iranian bullying tactics.”
“If the Iranians see how easily they can attack European institutions and get away with it, this will only embolden them for further outrages,” he said.
Kantor called for tougher sanctions against Iran, which, he said, has proven how little respect it has for human rights by violently repressing street protests following the recent presidential election results.
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Sweden, the country which took over the rotating EU presidency on Wednesday, believes that "maintaining relations" with Iran is crucial, said Irena Busic, spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
Some EU countries worry that pulling the ambassadors from Tehran would only serve to isolate the Iranian regime, cutting it off completely from outside influence.
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“If European nations were serious about imposing sanctions on the regime for its immoral and illegal behavior then it would force the Iranian leadership to rethink its policy and actions. For the sake of ordinary Iranians who have been crushed under the weight of repression, we call on the European Union to take strong measures in a very definitive manner starting with the removal of ambassadors from Tehran,” Kantor said.
Europe exported some 14.1 billion euros worth of goods to Iran in 2008 up nearly 1.5 percent from the year before. For Europe, Iran is a crucial partner for energy, which accounted for 90 percent of the 11.3 billion euros in EU imports from Iran.
The EJC recentely called on Europe to impose economic sanctions against Iran because of the state repression and violence meted out by government forces against demonstrators after the recent contested presidential election results.
The withdrawal of the 27 EU ambassadors from Tehran would be considered an extraordinary move that would send a powerful signal of EU unity in the wake of Tehran's post-election crackdown, observers said.