Iran has arrested eight local staff at the British embassy in Tehran over the post-election violence, local media reported on Sunday, a move likely to further strain ties between the two nations.
"Eight members of the local staff at the British embassy who had a considerable role in the recent riots have been arrested," the Fars news agency said without quoting a source.
Iran has repeatedly accused Britain of stoking unrest and seeking to destabilise the country in the wake of the hotly disputed June 12 election that returned hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
"We have in the last few days received a number of, sometimes confused, reports that British nationals or others with British connections have been detained," a spokesman for the Foreign Office said in London.
"We continue to raise them with the Iranian authorities."
A source told AFP that the arrests took place on Saturday.
A relative of one of those detained said: "He went out yesterday morning and I have been unable to reach him since his mobile phone is switched off. Since then I have had no news of his whereabouts."
Last week, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki also said Iran may downgrade ties with Britain, after the two governments expelled diplomats in a tit-for-tat move.
It has expelled the BBC correspondent Jon Leyne in Tehran and arrested a British-Greek journalist, while last week the intelligence minister said some people with British passports "had a role in the riots."
Hardline media outlets in Iran have also accused Leyne of hiring a hitman to shoot Neda Agha-Soltan after an Internet video of the young woman bleeding to death was seen around the world, sparking an international outcry.
Her fiance said she was deliberately targeted by the Islamic Basij militia which has been at the forefront of the crackdown against protesters.
Britain has been in the spotlight in Iran since last Friday, when supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced it as the "most evil" of enemies.
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 electoral dispute.
Britain said on Wednesday it wants "constructive" ties with Iran but renewed its criticism of Tehran's "deeply regrettable" response to the disputed presidential vote.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said there is a "crisis of credibility" between Iran's government and its people.
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.
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 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 programme, which London and Washington insist is aimed at developing atomic weapons, a claim rejected by Tehran.
Source: AFP Global Edition
