Iranian diplomats expelled from London in retaliation for attacks on British compounds in Tehran have arrived home.
According to a? Skynews report, roughly two dozen diplomats and their families returned on an Iran Air charter flight.
But 150 hardline regime supporters who waited with flower necklaces at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport to give the diplomats a hero’s welcome were thwarted by officials.
The Iranian government, apparently opposed to any high-profile display that could worsen the fallout, whisked the diplomats away unseen from a back door.
The move to downplay their arrival was seen by observers as reflecting Iran’s own internal political rifts as it struggles with its most serious diplomatic rift with the West in decades.
Also, Germany, France and the Netherlands have recalled their ambassadors for consultation, and Italy and Spain summoned Iranian envoys to condemn the attacks.
It amounts to the most serious diplomatic fallout with the West since the 1979 takeover of the US embassy after the Islamic revolution. Some Iranian political figures have voiced doubts over whether anything can be gained from escalating the diplomatic battle.
The obstruction of the Tehran welcome ceremony reflected the disagreements between hardliners and the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which opposed downgrading relations with Britain and condemned the attack on its embassy.