Iran tensions: UK ambassador to Tehran summoned over ‘inappropriate’ behaviour after being detained

Rob Macaire accused of attending anti-government protest but insists he was at vigil for plane crash victims

Britain’s ambassador to Tehran has been summoned to explain his “illegal and inappropriate presence” at an anti-government protest, the Iranian foreign ministry has said.

Rob Macaire was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following his arrest on Saturday at a rally where demonstrators condemned the downing of a Ukrainian airliner by Iranian forces.

The ambassador has insisted he had been attending a vigil for the victims of the fatal plane crash when protests broke out, at which point he left.

The summoning threatens to further escalate the diplomatic row between London and Tehran after foreign secretary Dominic Raab denounced Mr Macaire’s detention as a “flagrant violation” of international law.

Boris Johnson and German chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the arrest of Mr Macaire, a spokesman from the prime minister’s office said in a statement issued after the two leaders spoke on Sunday.

Dozens of Iranian hardliners have gathered outside the British embassy, chanting “death to England” while burning a Union Jack and calling for the ambassador to be expelled.

Mr Macaire tweeted on Sunday morning: “Can confirm I wasn’t taking part in any demonstrations! Went to an event advertised as a vigil for victims of #PS752 tragedy.

“Normal to want to pay respects – some of victims were British. I left after 5 mins, when some started chanting.”

He added: “Detained half an hour after leaving the area. Arresting diplomats is of course illegal, in all countries.”

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said he was one of a number of people arrested outside the Amir Kabir University on suspicion of organising, provoking and directing radical actions.

Officials stand near the wreckage of a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 near Tehran after a crash that killed 176 (Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs later said on its Telegram channel that he had been summoned over his “illegal and inappropriate presence” at the protests.

Iranian authorities are on standby for further demonstrations after the Revolutionary Guard admitted accidentally shooting down the Ukrainian jet shortly after take-off, killing all 176 people on board, including four Britons.

Earlier deputy foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said police had been unaware Mr Macaire was a diplomat and had arrested him as an “unknown foreigner”.

He said Mr Macaire was released within 15 minutes once he was able to speak to him on the telephone and confirm he was the ambassador.

Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who has been detained in Iran since April 2016, said Mr Macaire’s arrest is a “really bad sign for us”.

He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday show: “The arrest of the ambassador and the attempt to try and turn that into ‘this is a foreign plot, it’s the British organising the protest’ which is what Iranian Press TV has put out, it’s a really bad sign for us.”

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year sentence over allegations, which she vehemently denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

In an article for The Sunday Telegraph, written before Mr Macaire’s arrest, Mr Raab urged Iran to “come in from the cold” and resolve its differences with the west peacefully.

He said the “diplomatic door has been left ajar” for the regime in Tehran to end the isolation “choking” its economy.

Mr Raab said Britain and its European allies still hope to revive the Iran nuclear deal, despite US president Donald Trump’s insistence that it is dead.

However, he said the Iranians must end their pursuit of nuclear weapons, drop their support for terrorism, and release the foreign nationals held as “pawns in its nefarious diplomatic game”.

The downing of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 came just hours after Iran launched a series of ballistic missile strikes on US bases in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of its top commander, General Qassem Soleimani, by an American drone.

The missiles failed to cause any casualties and Mr Trump indicated he would respond by tightening sanctions rather than with further military action.

Additional reporting by Press Association