Iran jails British diplomat over summer uprising.

It sometimes feels as if Ahmadinejad wants the entire planet lined up against him, whether it's his stupid claims that the Holocaust didn't happen or the fact that he thinks that there is no such thing as a gay Iranian. And now we hear of this:

Britain's relations with Iran worsened last night after a senior UK diplomat in Tehran was reportedly sentenced to four years' imprisonment for orchestrating the mass protests that followed June's bitterly disputed presidential election that returned the hardliners to power.

Britain denies that Hossein Rassam, its chief political analyst at the Tehran embassy, was involved in the demonstrations that angered and embarrassed the Iranian regime.

The notion that any one person could have been behind the protests, which broke out all over Iran, is simply nonsensical. How could any one person have such influence?

But there is such a history in Iran of blaming Britain for every ill that Ahamdinejad might actually get away with this.

Resentment at many levels of Iranian society towards Britain runs deep, fuelled by the perception that the UK has for decades meddled in its internal affairs, at first over oil and then as part of London's political closeness to the United States.

The protests happened because there was a widespread feeling in Iran that the election was stolen, it certainly didn't need any British intervention to get people to take to the streets.

After Rassam's arrest the Fars news agency, which has close ties to the hardline Revolutionary guard, claimed that he was the "kingpin" and key strategist behind a purported embassy attempt to foment street demonstrations after the 12 June poll.

He was also accused of "acting against national security", a vague catch-all charge often brought against political detainees. Britain has denied the claims against Rassam.

So there we have it. There was actually no suspicion that the election was stolen, it was simply the evil Brits fomenting discontent.

As I say, nonsensical.

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Tags: Ahmadinejad, Iran, Britain, UK