European diplomats said that no formal decision to order their envoys home had been taken, but that the measure was an option under consideration as the European Union — Iran’s biggest trading partner — tries to work out how to defuse the dispute in a way that would shield other embassies in Tehran from similar action.

Withdrawing all 27 ambassadors would represent a rare and unusually forceful display of European anger at Iran’s behaviour, and several diplomats said the European Union would prefer to avoid it.

The initial Iranian response seemed characteristically bellicose. A high-ranking military official demanded that the Europeans apologise for interference in Iran’s affairs, which, he said, disqualified European countries from negotiating on the fraught issue of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

In a statement quoted by the Fars news agency on Wednesday, Iran’s chief of staff, Hassan Firouzabadi, was quoted as saying that because of EU’s “interference” in “the post-election riots, they have lost their qualification to hold nuclear talks with Iran”.

“Before apologising for their huge mistake,” he said, the European countries have “no right to talk about nuclear negotiations”, according to a Fars report. It was the first sign that Iran might use its post-election dispute to cast further doubt over the stalled nuclear negotiations, buying time to continue a nuclear enrichment programme.

The Iranian authorities have especially sought to cast Britain as an instigator of the unrest. They arrested nine local employees of the British Embassy in Tehran over the weekend, though five were released by Monday night. The Iranian authorities accused the local employees of fomenting unrest.

Press TV announced that three of the employees were released Wednesday, leaving just one still in custody. That employee, Fars said on Wednesday, “had a remarkable role during the recent unrest in managing it behind the scenes”.

Carl Bildt, Sweden’s Foreign Minister, told reporters on Wednesday — the day his country took over the rotating presidency of the European Union — that it was in the interests of both the European Union and Iran to retain full diplomatic ties. But he did not specifically exclude the withdrawal of ambassadors, saying that “from the diplomatic perspective, all options are on the table”. NYT

Ahmadinejad cancels libya trip

TEHRAN: Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called off a trip to Libya for an African Union summit on Wednesday that would have given the hardline President another chance to appear at an international forum after his disputed re-election. A spokesman at Ahmadinejad’s office said the Libya visit had been cancelled. He gave no reason. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi later told state television Ahmadinejad was too busy to go.

Rivals defiant on Iran poll result

TEHRAN: Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karoubi unleashed fierce attacks on the outcome of the June 12 vote that returned Ahmadinejad to power. Both men issued statements on their websites describing Ahmadinejad’s future Government as “illegitimate”.

“It is our historic responsibility to continue our protests and not to abandon our efforts to preserve the nation’s rights,” Moussavi wrote, urging the release of “children of the revolution”.

Karoubi also pledged to fight on. “I don’t consider this Government legitimate,” his statement said. Reuters