Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday Iran is reviewing whether to downgrade ties with Britain, accusing London of meddling in the post-election tumult gripping the Islamic republic.
"We are examining it," he was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying, after repeated charges by Tehran that Britain and the United States are trying to destabilise the Islamic republic.
His announcment came a day after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats in a tit-for-tat move after Tehran ordered two British diplomats to leave.
Downing Street said Britain wants "constructive" ties with Iran but renewing criticism of Tehran's response to the hotly disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"We have always been clear that we seek a constructive bilateral relationship with Iran based on mutual respect," a spokesman said after Mottaki's comments.
"Iran's decision to try to turn what are clearly internal matters for Iran into a conflict with the UK and others is deeply regrettable and without foundation."
Iran has repeatedly accused Britain of stoking the unrest that has engulfed the country since the June 12 election, with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei describing it as the "most evil" of enemies.
Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said on Wednesday that some people with British passports "had a role in the riots"
Mohseni-Ejei was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying members of "known counter-revolutionary groups" who entered the country in the run-up to the vote had been arrested.
"One of the detainees collected information needed by the enemies under the guise of a reporter," he said. "Britain was one of the countries which fuelled the situation by strong propaganda and some undiplomatic measures."
The Foreign Office has criticised Tehran for trying to "blame the UK and other outsiders for what is an Iranian reaction to an Iranian issue."
Earlier this week, Iran ordered the BBC's permanent correspondent in Tehran to leave the country, accusing him of supporting the rioters.
It accused the British broadcaster as well as Voice of America of being Israeli agents whose aim was to to "weaken the national solidarity, threaten territoral integrity and disintegrate Iran."
Authorities also announced the arrest of Iason Athanasiadis, a British-Greek freelance reporter for US newspaper the Washington Times.
These are the latest snags in decades of often prickly relations that have their roots in 19th century British imperialism.
They are the most serious standoff between the countries since Iran seized 15 British navy personnel at gunpoint and paraded them in front of TV cameras in 2007 before eventually releasing them.
The roots of the mutual distrust date back to the 1800s when Iran -- then known as Persia -- was trapped in the colonial rivalry between Russia and Britain.
Britain never colonised Iran, but occupied the south in 1942 after ousting Reza Shah Pahlavi for his pro-Nazi sympathies and exerted its influence through the exploitation of Iran's oil.
In 1953, nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown in a CIA-organised coup after he nationalised the Anglo-Iranian oil company, the forerunner to British Petroleum.
In 1979, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi suspected the British of being the force behind the Islamic revolution that swept Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power.
Then 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 Khomeini against British writer Salman Rushdie sparked a new rupture in ties that were only restored in 1999.
Britain is also among the strongest opponents of Iran's nuclear programme, which London and Washington insist is aimed at developing atomic weapons, a claim rejected by Tehran.
Source: AFP European Edition
