Agence France Presse – The British embassy in Tehran was pelted with petrol bombs and rocks on Friday as more than 50 Iranian militiamen protested London’s support of the Israeli offensive in Lebanon against the Shiite movement Hezbollah.
The demonstrators, mainly from the official Basij militia, jostled with scores of anti-riot police after lobbing Molotov cocktails, rocks and pails of paint at the gate of the downtown compound, an AFP correspondent said.
The protestors pulled down the British embassy sign at the gate before police forced them away from the building.
They chanted slogans included "Death to Britain" and "Death to America," and "Death to Israel," and they burned a British flag.
Some demonstrators also carried pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the Shiite militant group’s flag.
The demonstration took place after Tehran’s weekly Friday prayer sermon in which one of Iran’s most senior clerics, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, urged his countrymen to financially help Lebanon’s Hezbollah, marking a break with Iran’s usual position of emphasizing "moral support" only for the movement.
Iran is one of the main backers of Hezbollah, which captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12 and triggered the massive Israeli onslaught on Lebanon.
Tehran regularly denies Israeli and Western allegations that it finances and arms the movement.
