Finding a scapegoat or two — an update on this story. “Iranian cleric: British Embassy staff to be tried,” by Lee Keath for Associated Press, July 3 (thanks to Davida):
A top Iranian cleric said Friday that some of the detained Iranian staffers of the British Embassy in Tehran will be put on trial, and he accused Britain of a role in instigating widespread protests that erupted over the country’s disputed presidential election.
The announcement by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati alarmed European nations and fueled calls for tougher action against Tehran. Britan is pressing for members of the European Union to pull their ambassadors out of Tehran to protest the arrest of its embassy staffers last week “” a step that the EU so far has hesitated to take.
After Jannati’s comments, French President Nicolah [sic] Sarkozy on Friday expressed backing for Britain, saying “our solidarity with our English friends is total.” He said France backs sanctions “so that Iranian leaders will really understand that the path that they have chosen will be a dead end.”…
Good luck, Sarkozy. In that you will face opposition from the United States.
Jannati told the thousands of worshippers that the British “had designed a velvet revolution … In March, they said (in their Foreign Ministry) that street riots were possible during June elections. These are signs … revealed by themselves.”…
Though he did not name Mousavi directly, Jannati pointed out that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, once said that “anyone disrupts unity has not only committed a sin but also has committed treason against the Islamic Republic and the system.”
Jannati demanded that those involved in the protests “repent and ask God to forgive them.”