Iran wants British ambassador 'expelled'

ANKARA (AA) – Iran judiciary on Tuesday accused the British ambassador in Tehran of violating the country's law and called for his expulsion.

"British ambassador to Tehran, Rob Macaire, has not respected the laws of the Islamic Republic and should be expelled," spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaeili said in statements cited by Iran's Tasnim news agency.

"Under international law, such a person is a ‘persona non grata’. The (Iranian) people expect the person to be expelled and that is also what international law calls for," he said.

While stressing that Iran respects immunity of diplomats, Esmaeili said "Vienna convention states in Article 41 that all persons enjoying diplomatic privileges and immunity are obliged to respect the laws and regulations of the host countries and refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of the countries".

Macaire was briefly detained Saturday for allegedly taking part in demonstrations in Tehran over the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane by an Iranian missile.

London has decried the envoy's arrest by Iran as "flagrant violation of international law".