EU urges Iran to release British Embassy staff

STOCKHOLM — The European Union demanded on Thursday that Iran release all detained British Embassy staff amid disagreement over how many there were and discussion of a British proposal for the bloc to jointly withdraw all 27 of its ambassadors from the country.

Recalling the diplomats would be an extraordinary move and a powerful signal of EU unity in the wake of Tehran’s postelection crackdown.

But punishing the regime too harshly also risks spoiling chances of making headway on the critical issue of Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt suggested Iran could avoid a widening diplomatic rift by releasing local British Embassy staff who were detained for an alleged role in postelection protests.

Nine local staff were initially detained over the weekend. Iranian state TV on Wednesday said Tehran released all but one of the employees, but Bildt said “more than one” remained in custody.

“We expect them to take action and release those who have been detained,” Bildt told The Associated Press. “So far that has not been done.”

His comments suggested the 27 EU members were not ready to accept the British proposal to pull all ambassadors from Tehran. Sweden holds the rotating EU presidency.

“We’re taking things step by step. At the moment we are awaiting how the Iranian authorities will react,” Bildt said. “The ball is in Iran’s court.”

The issue was expected to be given high priority in a two-day meeting of EU foreign policy directors starting Thursday in Stockholm. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Phil Gordon, was set to take part in the meeting on Friday.

U.S. officials say they remain open to talks with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, despite questions about the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election and his belligerent anti-American rhetoric.

“We will be discussing matters such as the situation in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said Bjorn Lyrvall, political affairs director of Sweden’s Foreign Ministry.

“President Obama has given high priority to this region and this is shared by the EU. And we will probably also discuss disarmament and the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons,” Lyrvall said in a statement before the meeting.

Nuclear negotiations with Iran had stalled even before its crackdown on citizens demonstrating against what they say was a skewed election in favor of Ahmadinejad.

The detentions of local personnel at the British Embassy last week cranked up Iran’s standoff with the West.

“But even one is one too many,” Bildt said, adding he was in close contact with Iranian authorities on the matter.

Both Britain and the EU condemned the detentions as “harassment and intimidation.”

Iran, which accuses Europe of supporting anti-government rallies, said the EU had disqualified itself from talks over Tehran’s nuclear program because of its “interference” in the postelection unrest.

The EU “has totally lost the competence and qualifications needed for holding any kind of talks with Iran,” Iran’s chief of staff, Gen. Hasan Firouzabadi, was quoted as saying by the semiofficial Fars News Agency.

Political analysts said recalling ambassadors from Iran would send strong message of EU unity.

“I think the symbolic signal cannot be underestimated,” said Shannon Kile, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “The EU hasn’t been able to act in a unified way vis-a-vis Iran on anything.”

The main concern, he said, was that the move could help push Iran further into isolation, to a point where it “won’t be possible to have any outside influence on its behavior.”

The European Jewish Congress called on the EU to stand up to Iran’s “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,” congress president Moshe Kantor said in a statement.

The EU has so far refrained from sanctions against Iran. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Wednesday that Europe and others must take care not to become “an excuse for use of violence or use of repression inside Iran.”