TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Western leaders against meddling on Monday as Paris said a French woman academic has been detained in the Islamic republic on spying charges.
Britain, meanwhile, said that all but one embassy employee detained for allegedly stoking unrest have now been freed.
Khameini admitted to "differences" among Iranians following the bitterly disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month but warned the West not to exploit the worst crisis in Iran since its 1979 revolution.
"The Iranian nation warns the leaders of those countries trying to take advantage of the situation, beware! The Iranian nation will react," Khamenei said in a televised speech.
Facing global concern about the June 12 election and an ensuing crackdown on the opposition, Iranian leaders fired back, accusing Britain and the United States in particular of seeking to exploit the public protests to destabilise the Islamic regime.
It expelled two British diplomats last month, prompting a tit-for-tat response from London, and detained nine locally recruited British embassy staff, accusing them of instigating riots during the massive public demonstrations in Tehran.
At least 20 people were killed and more than 1,000 arrested in the unrest, according to police, while human rights groups have said as many as 2,000 were detained.
Despite the crackdown, the Iranian opposition remains defiant, with Ahmadinejad's main defeated rival Mir Hossein Mousavi renewing his accusations that the voting process was full of "irregularities."
After a Franco-British summit, the foreign ministry in Paris said: "France firmly condemns the July 1 arrest and detention by Iran of a French academic.
"The spying charges put forward by the Iranian authorities do not pass the test," it added, without revealing the name of the woman, who had been in Iran for five months when she was arrested at the airport as she was about to leave.
Britain said the eighth of the nine embassy staff detained had been released on Sunday, leaving one in custody.
"The Iranian regime must be clear that if this action continues and we are forced to act, we will act together with our European partners," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
Britain and France took a firm stance on Iran at their summit in the French Alpine town of Evians.
"The Iranian regime must be clear that if this action continues and we are forced to act, we will act together with our European partners," Brown told a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sarkozy expressed France's "total solidarity" with Britain.
A top Iranian cleric said on Friday that some of the British embassy staff would be put on trial, but did not say how many, while European Union governments had called in Iranian ambassadors across the 27-nation bloc in protest at the detentions.
Russia however has warned against a harsh response, saying it could jeopardise talks over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is a cover for a weapons drive despite Tehran's denials.
Tehran and Washington engaged in a new war of words over the nuclear programme on Monday after Vice President Joe Biden said the United States would not stand in Israel's way in its dealings with Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, warned Iran would respond to any attack by its arch-foe Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear armed state.
"If (an Israeli attack) occurred, then the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond in a very full-scale and very decisive way."
Biden told US television network ABC that "we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened."
Britain, meanwhile, said that all but one embassy employee detained for allegedly stoking unrest have now been freed.
Khameini admitted to "differences" among Iranians following the bitterly disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month but warned the West not to exploit the worst crisis in Iran since its 1979 revolution.
"The Iranian nation warns the leaders of those countries trying to take advantage of the situation, beware! The Iranian nation will react," Khamenei said in a televised speech.
Facing global concern about the June 12 election and an ensuing crackdown on the opposition, Iranian leaders fired back, accusing Britain and the United States in particular of seeking to exploit the public protests to destabilise the Islamic regime.
It expelled two British diplomats last month, prompting a tit-for-tat response from London, and detained nine locally recruited British embassy staff, accusing them of instigating riots during the massive public demonstrations in Tehran.
At least 20 people were killed and more than 1,000 arrested in the unrest, according to police, while human rights groups have said as many as 2,000 were detained.
Despite the crackdown, the Iranian opposition remains defiant, with Ahmadinejad's main defeated rival Mir Hossein Mousavi renewing his accusations that the voting process was full of "irregularities."
After a Franco-British summit, the foreign ministry in Paris said: "France firmly condemns the July 1 arrest and detention by Iran of a French academic.
"The spying charges put forward by the Iranian authorities do not pass the test," it added, without revealing the name of the woman, who had been in Iran for five months when she was arrested at the airport as she was about to leave.
Britain said the eighth of the nine embassy staff detained had been released on Sunday, leaving one in custody.
"The Iranian regime must be clear that if this action continues and we are forced to act, we will act together with our European partners," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
Britain and France took a firm stance on Iran at their summit in the French Alpine town of Evians.
"The Iranian regime must be clear that if this action continues and we are forced to act, we will act together with our European partners," Brown told a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sarkozy expressed France's "total solidarity" with Britain.
A top Iranian cleric said on Friday that some of the British embassy staff would be put on trial, but did not say how many, while European Union governments had called in Iranian ambassadors across the 27-nation bloc in protest at the detentions.
Russia however has warned against a harsh response, saying it could jeopardise talks over Iran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is a cover for a weapons drive despite Tehran's denials.
Tehran and Washington engaged in a new war of words over the nuclear programme on Monday after Vice President Joe Biden said the United States would not stand in Israel's way in its dealings with Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, warned Iran would respond to any attack by its arch-foe Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear armed state.
"If (an Israeli attack) occurred, then the Islamic Republic of Iran will respond in a very full-scale and very decisive way."
Biden told US television network ABC that "we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened."
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