The British ambassador to Tehran, Rob Macaire, was briefly detained without any reason being assigned at a students protest in Amir Kabir University. Iran has been facing a severe backlash after it admitted that one of its missiles struck a Ukraine plane killing 176 people on board.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab warned Iran that the country faces international isolation because of such actions. He said the detention of Macaire was a "flagrant violation" of international law. The diplomat was detained when he was attending a vigil for the victims of the plane crash at the university. He was about to leave as the event slowly turned into a protest.
Washington is closely watching the protests
The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office said in a statement that Macaire was released after the brief detention. The US has also turned its attention to the protests and is closely monitoring the tensions in the country, according to a tweet by US President Donald Trump.
Morgan Ortagus, the State Department spokesperson, also tweeted on the issue asking the Iranian government to formally apologize to the British government over the detention. He said the Iranian action was in violation of the Vienna Convention.
Iran's Tasnim News Agency alleged that Macaire had been inciting the protesting students. The ambassador was released after a few hours and will be summoned by government officials on Sunday. State media said that the students were chanting anti-regime slogans and the Fars news agency said they were tearing down several posters of top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed in Iraq on January 3 in a US drone attack.
The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards accepted full responsibility for shooting down the Ukraine plane.
