This is weak even by Obama’s standards.
The United States condemns in the strongest terms the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran. Iran has a responsibility to protect the diplomatic missions present in its country and the personnel stationed at them. We urge Iran to fully respect its international obligations, to condemn the incident, to prosecute the offenders, and to ensure that no further such incidents take place either at the British Embassy or any other mission in Iran. Our State Department is in close contact with the British government and we stand ready to support our allies at this difficult time.
Embassies in foreign lands are, legally, territory of the countries that own the embassies. That UK embassy is British territory; the attack on it was an attack on the UK. Obama’s statement suggests that the Iranians have some sort of responsibility to condemn the attack, which would be silly of them to do since they authorized the attack. “Prosecute the offenders” is likewise silly, since the offenders were acting on the orders of the mullahcracy. Does Obama expect them to prosecute themselves?
And since when has the terrorist state in Tehran respected any of its “international obligations”? How about “never.” They’re not going to start now that Obama has issued a mildly worded statement that doesn’t really address the facts of the attack.
Weak as water.
Paper thin.
…and if the Iranian leadership doesn’t do what The Won says, he’ll up the ante… by sending a strongly-worded letter!
And then Dear Liar might go to the UN and get them to issue a strongly worded letter.
Jimmah Carter, Part two. Is this what Yogi meant by De Ja Vue all over again?
I just hope it works out for teh won like it did for Jimmah.
i’ve been out all day
when in the world did this happen?
their nuclear facilities should have been hit immediately following this incident
“Embassies in foreign lands are, legally, territory of the countries that own the embassies. That UK embassy is British territory; the attack on it was an attack on the UK.”
I agree with the thrust of all you say, but did want to clarify one point: The UK embassy in Tehran is not British territory. Embassies are the territory of the host state — thus, the Russian embassy in Washington DC is U.S. territory even though it is subject to special protections pursuant to diplomatic and consular treaties. These protections are not absolute as they would be if the embassy grounds were “extraterritorial”.
This conclusion — that embassies are the territory of the host state — is confirmed by the leading treatises and by a substantial line of court decisions in the United States.
At one time, embassies were viewed as the territory of the foreign state but that notion ceased to be accepted several hundred years ago. Nevertheless, it is still used in common parlance.
Again, none of this detracts from the correctness of your conclusions.
Let me clarify one thing about my comment. I am not in any way diminishing the seriousness of what Iran did. It may not have been an invasion of British territory but it was a serious violation of Britain’s rights under the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations. Invading an embassy like this is a major violation of international law.
What next?
Will he wag the finger?
Certainly he won’t do the middle finger scratch. That would be far to provocative to a good fried like Akmanutjob.
I’m flabbergasted that President Puny said anything at all. He remained silent in 2009 when a citizen uprising against the Iranian state occured, allowing many Iranian citizens to be slaughtered, further cementing Iran’s dominance in the region and diminishing America.
If only the resistance would have hoisted the hammer and sickle and called itself OCCUPY TEHRAN, Obama might have gotten on board.
Sorry to say, but if Americans wish to be further weakened and impoverished, they will continue to allow Puny Pants to president of this country. Until ‘barak the impotent’ has been given a permanent ‘time out’, this incident will not even make the news in the future.
Every day with this guy in office is just bad news.
More of that ‘smart, tough diplomacy’ we were promised!
We did say that Obama would be Carter 2.0, did we not? Dear Lord, it is 1979 all over again. Well, they hit the Brits this time, but it is a direct message to us, a real slap in the face.
So, when do they start lopping off the heads of Embassy personnel?
Wow, Obamanidiot really sounded like Nevile Chamberlain speaking about the Hitler youth. We all know how effective that was…….WWII
The only reason they targeted the British Embassy is because neither the U.S. or Israel have embassies in Iran. Not quite the great or lesser Satan, but the next best thing.
In spite of Obama’s best attempts, the world still sees Great Britain as a close American ally.
Whether or not one considers the concept of “extraterritoriality” to be inforce with respect to a nation’s embassy in a foreign country or not, Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, reads as follows:
1. “The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving state may not enter them, except with the permission of the head of mission.
2. The receiving state is under special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.
3. The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.”
So the GOI is clearly in violation of its international obligations. Of course, the internal battle between Ahmadinanutjob and Larijani is really at the heart of this matter.
The Brits have now closed their embassy in Tehran and ordered all Iranian diplomats out of the U.K.
Actually, Obama did not say ‘British Embassy, but rather ‘English Embassy” a big difference.
I guess the press once again is trying to clean up obummers gaffes, since he’s cheographically challenged.
Despite how it would have inflamed things in a way likely favorable to Akmunnutjob, I do wish that the Brits had opened up with two well-placed machineguns and butchered the mob on the embassy grounds. I expect that is actually what he was hoping for, as it would have inflamed passions against the satans of the West and drawn an apology from Obama (even though it would not have been our troops doing the fighting, it would have been a reflexive action on his part).
Here’s a video of Obambi decrying the “crashing” of the “English embassy”:
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/11/29/does-obama-know-the-difference-between-great-britain-and-england/