According to the regime, the students stormed the embassy. But this guy is a Quds force officer, Karim Jalali, When he was there, it means Sepah was behind it with direct order of the supreme leader.
The Wall Street Journal adds:
The scenes outside the British embassy in Iran yesterday evoked Tehran, 1979. Young, bearded men forced their way in and briefly held six British employees.Deutche Welle confirms:
The attack was no impromptu happening. Police stood by, and Iranian state television broadcast events live. By some strange reflex, Western media insisted the attackers were "students." To Iranians who know better, they were the basij militia, the regime's first line of defense. These thugs were called out to brutally put down the 2009 Green Revolution, a genuine student-led uprising.
The assault was no doubt revenge for Britain's decision to impose financial sanctions in the wake of the recent U.N. report on Iran's nuclear-weapons program. Iran's parliament voted Monday to expel the British ambassador, MPs chanted "Death to Britain" and issued threats against the U.K. embassy. Twenty-four hours later, the basij arrived.
The episode is one more reminder that Iran is not the "status quo power" that many in the West imagine. It is a regime that flouts civilized norms and seeks to dominate its region and terrorize the U.S. and its allies.
Hamid Etemad (name changed), a lecturer at a university in Iran and an expert on international law said "such an act in blatant violation of international law would be unthinkable without getting a green light from the highest political decision-makers."
Omid Nouripour, foreign policy spokesman of Germany's opposition Green Party, agreed. Tuesday's event was an organized protest, Nouripour said. Forces involved in the brutal crackdown on the Iranian pro-democracy movement in 2009 were among the alleged demonstrators, he claimed.
(h/t Yoel, T34)