Iranian diplomats leave UK after expulsion

All Iranian diplomats in London left on a chartered airplane Friday, expelled by the U.K. government in retaliation for attacks on the British Embassy in Tehran.They left Heathrow Airport in the afternoon, the Foreign Office said, and the roughly two dozen diplomats and their dependents will be welcomed back at Tehran airport, according to Irans semiofficial Fars news agency.Irans relations with Britain have become increasingly strained in recent months, largely due to tensions over Tehrans refusal to halt uranium enrichment a process that can lead to the development of nuclear weapons.Images broadcast around the world Tuesday showed demonstrators tearing down British flags and brandishing a looted picture of Queen Elizabeth II at the embassy compound in Tehran. The incident has deepened Irans isolation and significantly escalated tensions with the West.Britains ambassador to Iran, Dominick Chilcott now back in Britain said the experience had been frightening.We had no idea how it was going to end, he said, describing how the mob trashed rooms, damaged furniture, scrawled graffiti and tore up a portrait of Queen Victoria, as staff took shelter in a secure area of the embassy.It felt like very spiteful, mindless vandalism, but it wasnt quite mindless, Chilcott said. They removed anything that was electronic mobile telephones personal computers ... anything that might give information about who you were talking to or what you were doing.He said seven staff at a separate residential compound that was also attacked were seized and quite roughly handled by the invaders.In response to the attack, British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Wednesday ordered the Iranian diplomats to leave within 48 hours.Hague also pulled Britains diplomats out of Iran following the embassy attack and backed new sanctions on the Islamic republic. At least four other European countries, including Germany and France, also moved to reduce diplomatic contacts with Iran.