EU to counter Iran's "harassment" of embassy staff

By Dina Kyriakidou and David Brunnstrom

CORFU, Greece (Reuters) - The European Union on Sunday condemned Iran's crackdown on post-election protesters and said the EU would meet any Iranian intimidation of European diplomatic staff with a "strong and collective response".

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country takes over the EU presidency from Wednesday, said the Iranian government had been weakened at home and abroad.

"Obviously the regime is trying to preserve its position by very harsh repression. But that cannot hide the fact that this is a weakened regime. It has lost legitimacy both internally and externally," Bildt said.

EU foreign ministers were meeting on the Greek island of Corfu to review strategy towards Iran, where mass protests over alleged vote rigging in a June 12 presidential election have prompted crackdowns by police and Islamic militia.

The ministers urged Iran to swiftly release several Iranian employees of Britain's Tehran embassy and a Greek journalist detained as alleged instigators of the street unrest.

"The EU calls on Iran and its authorities to stop hostilities against EU member states as well as (the) EU's partner countries and their citizens," said Foreign Minister Jan Kohout of the Czech Republic, the current EU president.

"The EU strongly denounces arbitrary arrests and repression against members of the civil society," he said.

"(We) made clear to the Iranian authorities that harassment or intimidation of foreign and Iranian staff working at EU embassies (in Tehran) will be met with a strong and collective EU response," Kohout said, reading a joint communique.