This morning, a group of protesters entered the grounds of the Iranian embassy in Canberra, Australia, and removed the official flag of the Islamic Republic.
Demonstrators – reported to be supporters of the exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi – replaced it with the Lion and Sun flag, a symbol associated with Iran before the 1979 revolution.
The incident follows a fresh call to action from Pahlavi late last night, in which he again urged Iranian security forces to defect and appealed to Iranians living in Western countries to reclaim embassies for the people.
He said Iran’s diplomatic missions should display the national flag rather than what he described as the “disgraceful banner of the Islamic Republic”.
It comes after a protester climbed onto the balcony of the Iranian embassy in west London on Saturday and pulled down the official flag and briefly replaced it with the Lion and Sun emblem.
Iran reacted with its foreign ministry summoning the British ambassador in Tehran, state TV reports.
- As our chief political correspondent reported in our previous post, the BBC understands the UK’s ambassador to Iran held talks at the country’s foreign ministry yesterday
Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has accused Western governments of failing to meet their obligations to protect diplomatic premises.
He said they had neglected their duty to ensure the security of Iranian missions, describing the protest at the London embassy as “absolutely unacceptable”.
