Iran expels German diplomat

Iran has expelled a German diplomat for “non-diplomatic activities”, the country’s foreign ministry said today.

It is believed the expulsion could be retaliation for the expulsion of an Iranian diplomat from Germany in July.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said: “Those in charge recognised that non-diplomatic activities are being undertaken and announced that this diplomat should leave the soil of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Mr Hosseini did not make clear if it was the diplomat who was responsible for the “non-diplomatic activities”.

It was reported last month that an Iranian official was forced to leave Germany in the summer after he tried to acquire components for Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.

The Iranian diplomat was reportedly expelled after contacting a firm in Bavaria to buy a systems control component which would be essential in the enrichment of uranium.

Iran denies it wants a nuclear bomb and says its atomic work is aimed at boosting civilian power generation.

The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on Iran for failing to comply with demands to suspend uranium enrichment, a process the West believes Tehran is trying to master to enable it to build nuclear weapons.

A US National Intelligence Estimate published last month said Iran stopped its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

Meanwhile, Iran has no immediate plans to normalise relations with the United States, its Foreign Ministry said today.

Mr Hosseini said: “Given continuation of hostile policies of the United States against Iran, we have no plans for normalisation of relations with America. This issue is not in our agenda.”

Mr Hosseini’s comment was apparently intended to clarify remarks by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said on Thursday that he was willing to restore diplomatic relations with the US but doing so now would make Iran more vulnerable to American espionage.

Mr Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, said Iran never said the severed relations were forever and that he would be the “first one to support” resumption of diplomatic ties with Washington, but he believed doing so now would be “harmful” to Iran’s interests.

The US cut diplomatic ties with Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when militant students seized the US embassy in Tehran and published sensitive documents they found inside documenting American intelligence-gathering in the country.

The embassy, labelled the “Den of Spies”, is occasionally open to the public as a museum documenting American actions in Iran and the region.

The Swiss embassy in Tehran looks after US interests in Iran, while the Iranians have an interest section in Pakistan’s embassy in Washington.

Iran claimed last year it had uncovered spy rings organised by the US and its Western allies and detained four Iranian-Americans, who were later released.

The dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme and US allegations of Iranian support for armed groups in Iraq have further raised tensions.

Washington has said it is willing to hold talks with Iran over the issue of diplomatic ties only after Iran halts uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce nuclear fuel for reactors producing electricity or build atomic weapons.

But the two countries have held three rounds of ambassador-level negotiations on security in Iraq, breaking the 28-year diplomatic freeze.