TEHRAN: A powerful Iranian cleric said on Friday that some local British embassy staff will be put on trial for allegedly stoking post-election unrest, a move set to plunge already strained ties to a new low, AFP reported.

‘In these incidents, their embassy had a presence, some people were arrested. Naturally they will be put on trial, they have made confessions,’ Ahmad Jannati, the head of Iran’s Guardians Council, said at Friday prayers.

A total of nine local staff were initially arrested late last month but the British government said seven have now been released, while Iranian state television has said only one remains in custody.

‘We are concerned and we are checking the reports,’ a Foreign Office spokeswoman said. ‘It is our top priority to secure the release of all of the embassy staff.’

Iran accused the embassy employees of instigating riots in the unrest that erupted over the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which his rivals said was fraudulent and marred by widespread irregularities.

Britain has rejected the allegations against the embassy as baseless.

Jannati, who is close to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a strong Ahmadinejad supporter, said the country’s ‘enemies’ had been plotting a ‘velvet revolution’ in the Islamic republic.

He said the Foreign Office had predicted ‘street riots’ around the June 12 election and that it had warned its nationals to stay away from public places.

Khamenei described Britain, which has long had turbulent relations with Iran and a long history of mistrust, as the ‘most evil’ of its enemies.

EU nations are considering a proposal from Britain to recall all their ambassadors from Tehran in protest and the Swedish presidency said on Thursday the 27-member body was ‘ready to take action’ if the staff are not freed.

Britain appears to have replaced the United States, often dubbed ‘the Great Satan,’ by Iranian leaders, as Tehran’s top foe in the wake of the election that triggered the worst crisis since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Last month, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran may downgrade ties with Britain, after the two governments expelled each other’s diplomats.

Tehran has also expelled the BBC correspondent and arrested a British-Greek
reporter.

Iranian officials have been particularly angered by the launch of the BBC’s Persian satellite channel this year, which they accuse of fanning the flames in the election dispute.

The roots of the mutual distrust date back to the 1800s when Iran, then Persia, was trapped in the colonial rivalry between Russia and Britain.

In 1953, nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown in a CIA-organised coup with support from British operatives after he nationalised the Anglo-Iranian oil company, the forerunner to British Petroleum.

Diplomatic relations were severed when the British mission in Tehran was closed in 1980 after British special forces stormed the Iranian embassy in London to end a hostage siege.

A 1989 fatwa by Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against British writer Salman Rushdie sparked a new rupture in ties that were only restored in 1999.

In 2007, Iran seized 15 British navy personnel on patrol in waters between Iraq and Iran and held them for 12 days.

Britain is also among the strongest opponents of Iran’s nuclear drive, which London and Washington say is aimed at developing atomic weapons, a claim rejected by Tehran.

The Guardians Council, made up of 12 unelected jurists and clerics, is one of the most powerful bodies in Iran. It has the authority to interpret the constitution, holds veto power over legislation passed in parliament and ratifies election results.