05 February 2009 : Times
By Alan Cowell
LONDON -- The British Council, a global cultural institution run by the British government, said Thursday that it had been forced to suspend its activities in Iran because of what it called “unacceptable” intimidation and harassment of its staff in Tehran.
The announcement came a day after the United States women’s badminton team complained that its players had been denied visas to compete in a tournament in Tehran.
“Our athletes were very much looking forward to the event and are very disappointed that they will not be able to compete and meet new friends. Friendship through sport is a good thing that should be respected and cherished,” the team said in a statement on its Web site, www.usabadminton.org. “We were told our visas had been approved and were asked to secure them in Dubai. It’s unfortunate that we will not be able to compete and sincerely hope we will be extended another invitation in the near future.”
It was not clear whether the two episodes were related. The American team’s participation would have been the first exchange under the Obama administration, The Associated Press reported, quoting an Iranian official as saying there had not been enough time to process the visas.
In a statement, the British Council said it halted its operations on January 31 after its 16 locally hired employees “were summoned for interviews at the Iranian Office of the President where it was suggested to them that they should resign from their posts with the British Council.”
Earlier two members of the staff “had their passports confiscated after attempting to leave the country to go to a routine meeting,” the statement said.
Thee office would remain closed “until such a time that operations can be resumed with employees able to conduct their work without fear of intimidation or harassment.”
Martin Davidson, the chief executive of the British Council, said “these actions by the Iranian authorities are unacceptable.” There was no immediate response from the Iranian authorities.
The dispute in Iran was the second in a just over a year following the council’s decision in January 2008 to suspend operations at two regional offices because of what it said was intimidation of staff members in Ekaterinburg and St. Petersburg. While the council’s main office in Moscow continued to operate, the regional offices are still closed, a spokesman for the council said on Thursday. The council is locked in a legal dispute with Russian authorities over taxes.
The British institution prides itself on teaching English, promoting educational programs for foreigners in Britain and staging British cultural events. The council’s statement on Thursday said it had first established an office in Tehran in 1942 but closed it for 22 years after the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Since its reopening eight years ago, the council put on what it said was Iran’s first western theater production-- Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale --- in 25 years.
The suspension of its activities coincided with developments related to presidential elections set for June, celebrations under way to mark the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution and questions about Tehran’s nuclear program.
Britain, along with the United States, France, Germany, Russia and China, is one of the group of countries trying to restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. On Wednesday, a senior British Foreign Office official, Bill Rammell, said Iran would achieve a more advanced nuclear capability within years and said Britain was prepared to act alone in imposing more rigorous sanctions on Tehran.
Iran has come under increasing pressure from the West over its efforts to enrich uranium. The United Nations Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran, including missile-related embargoes, and has called on it to suspend its enrichment activities. Iran has refused and insists that the effort is for peaceful, civilian purposes.
The Obama administration has signaled a new, if conditional, readiness for dialogue with Iran, but Tehran’s response has been ambiguous.
In a speech Wednesday, the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, said it was “very welcome indeed that the United States should be seeking to enter the multilateral debate about the Iranian nuclear program and also discussing its own bilateral engagement with the Iranian government.”
“I think that we have said for a long time that this is a vital issue, not just for the Middle East, which has more than enough problems without a nuclear arms race,” he said.
