British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called Robert Macaire’s arrest a “flagrant violation of international law.”
Iranian officials arrested and briefly detained Robert Macaire, the British ambassador to Iran, according to the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary.
Macaire was arrested amid a protest outside of a university in Tehran and detained for more than an hour. He was eventually released, the Iran-based Tasnim News Agency reported.
“The arrest of our Ambassador in Tehran without grounds or explanation is a flagrant violation of international law,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement Saturday.
“The Iranian government is at a cross-roads moment,” Raab continued. “It can continue its march towards pariah status with all the political and economic isolation that entails, or take steps to deescalate tensions and engage in a diplomatic path forwards.”
The U.S. State Department also denounced the arrest and called on the Iranian regime to formally apologize in its own statement Saturday.
“This violates the Vienna Convention, which the regime has a notorious history of violating,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Twitter. “We call on the regime to formally apologize to the UK for violating his rights and to respect the rights of all diplomats.
Source:Huffpost
