Iranian cleric says UK embassy staff face trial

By Hashem Kalantari

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior Iranian cleric warned on Friday that detained British embassy staff would face trial for their alleged role in post-election unrest, and EU countries summoned Iranian envoys to protest against the detentions.

Britain said it was urgently seeking clarification from Iranian authorities over Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati's comments to worshippers during Friday prayers in Tehran.

"In these developments (the unrest) their embassy here maintained a presence," Jannati said. "Individuals were arrested and inevitably they will be tried as they have (made) confessions."

Jannati is a conservative who heads the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member constitutional watchdog which upheld the official result of the June 12 presidential election -- won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but rejected as a fraud by moderate challenger Mirhossein Mousavi.

The Guardian newspaper in London reported that one of the embassy officials had been formally charged and would stand trial for "acting against national security."

The newspaper, in its Saturday edition, said the 44-year-old Iranian, the embassy's chief political analyst, had been charged at Tehran's Evin Prison, citing his lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi.

The post-election unrest has posed a dilemma for Western powers torn between sympathy for protesters and a desire to keep alive chances for dialogue on what they suspect is an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Iran denies it is seeking to make bombs, and the incoming head of the U.N.'s nuclear agency said on Friday he did not see any written evidence Iran is seeking nuclear weapons capability.

But French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tehran, which has already been handed three rounds of United Nations sanctions over its failure to stop enriching uranium, could face more international measures over the British embassy detentions.

"France has always wanted to strengthen the sanctions so that the Iranians leaders really understand that the path they have chosen will be a dead end," he said in Stockholm.

ENVOYS SUMMONED

A European Union official in Brussels said members of the 27-member bloc summoned Iranian ambassadors to protest against the detention of the British embassy's Iranian staff.

He said EU states agreed a gradual approach toward Tehran that could in future include visa bans and withdrawal of ambassadors from Iran, depending on how the situation evolved.

"The first immediate action is to convey a strong message of protest against the detention of British embassy local staff and to demand their immediate release," the official said.

Further steps would also be determined by the outcome of the meeting of the Group of Eight major industrialized powers in Italy next week, he said.