A prominent newspaper editor in Iran says the defeated presidential election candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and a former pro-reform president both committed "terrible crimes" which should be tried in court.
In a commentary published in his hardline Kayhan daily, editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari - who is seen as close to Iran's top authority - suggested that Mr Mousavi and his supporters in last month's disputed election had acted on the instructions of Iran's arch-foe the United States.
Earlier, a senior Iranian cleric warned that detained British embassy staff would face trial over unrest following last month's election.
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," he said.
"Individuals were arrested and inevitably they will be tried as they have (made) confessions."
Ayatollah Jannati is a conservative who heads the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member constitutional watchdog which upheld the official result of the 12 June presidential election, won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but rejected as a fraud by challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi.
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 have agreed on a gradual approach towards Tehran that could in future include visa bans and the withdrawal of ambassadors from Iran, depending on how the situation evolves.
Iran said earlier this week that nine Iranian staff at the British Embassy were detained for involvement in the mass street protests that erupted after the election.
Most have been released, but British officials say two embassy employees remain in detention.
