Via WikiNews:Iran and Britain expel diplomats after Iranian presidential election.

We note that while attacks from President Obama’s political right have urged him to be more aggressive, in the UK David Cameron has reminded the P.M. that the “Iranian elections [are] an internal Iranian conflict, between Iranians and other Iranians.” If this ends with a full end of diplomatic relations, what impact will this have for formal and informal communications and intelligence-gathering between Iran and the west? Not good, we suspect.

The expulsions come in the wake of the recent Iranian presidential election, and hostility directed by Iran to the United Kingdom by Iranian leaders and official news services, including statements made by Supreme Leader of IranAli Khamenei

calling the British government the “most evil” of foreign governments.

Commenting upon the expulsion as it was announced, Leader of the Opposition in the British House of Commons, David Cameron , urged people to remember that this was not a conflict between Iran and the United Kingdom, but was an internal Iranian conflict, between Iranians and other Iranians.

Leaders in Iran have long-standing criticisms of what they view as interference by the United Kingdom in internal Iranian affairs. The Iranian government accuses BBC Persian Television, which is funded by the British Foreign Office, of being a propaganda service for the British Government. These criticisms have been repeated by official Iranian news services in the past few days. The Iranian government has already expelled one BBC journalist, Jon Leyne who was expelled on Sunday, from the country. The BBC has reported efforts to jam transmissions of BBC Persian Television by the Iranian government.

The United Kingdom is not the only country who yesterday called in its Iranian ambassador. In Germany, similar accusations of foreign interference, levelled by Iran at Chancellor of Germany

Angela Merkel

over remarks that she made last weekend, caused Germany to yesterday summon its Iranian ambassador for what spokesmen have described as “clarification”.

Iran has also leveled interference charges against the United Nations, with Iranian foreign minister Hassan Ghashghavi accusing Secretary-General of the United NationsBan Ki-moon

of “meddling in Iran’s internal affairs” when Ban called upon Iran to respect the “will of its people”. Hassan accused Ban of “ignorantly following some domineering powers which have a long record of uncalled-for interference in other countries’ internal affairs and colonisation”.