Iran has seized several British diplomats under the ridiculous story that the diplomats are responsible for the unrest in Iran. This is part of a concerted effort by the Iranian regime to play to Iranian nationalism and paint the protesters in Iran as pawns of Western interests. It's a lie, but it's what they do.
But why the British? Why not America. Certainly Iranian leaders have been screaming about American interference, though they can point to no actual examples of such interference. So why pick on the British.
It's really two reasons, both boiling down to "because they can."
First, the British are there to hassle. We aren't. We still don't have diplomatic relations with Iran and hence no embassy and no diplomats to arrest.
But there is a second reason. The British can't strike back. The United States has over 100,000 troops in neighboring Iraq to include significant air power, plus carrier battlegroups stationed at or near the Persian Gulf with sophisticated missiles and high performance aircraft. The best the British could muster would be a single light carrier with nothing more than short range Harrier jump jets.
Iraq is harassing the Brits because the last thing they want to do with turmoil internally is give the United States an excuse to hit them and their nuclear sites. The British are a comparatively harmless target.
"A man never drinks anything that a plant lives in" --DBone (A Real Man).
http://vimeo.com/4938173
