I don't usually feel any sympathy for diplomats but, this morning, UK officials based in South America, the Middle East and certain parts of Asia must be feeling nervous. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the stand-off between the UK and Ecuador governments over access to the latter's London embassy, the actions of the UK Government will be perceived in certain quarters as flouting the Vienna Conventions. How can we expect others to respect the inviolacy of foreign embassies and diplomats when we appear to making threats ourselves?
So the next time that some humanitarian dissident seeks asylum in a British embassy in Iran, the Yemen, Argentina or Venezuela, what do you suppose will happen?
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