In detaining local employees of the British embassy in Tehran, the Iranian authorities appear to have mined a deep vein of hostility toward Britain which has lasted, off and on, since the latter's imperialist grandeur in the 19th century. And it isn't hard to enumerate the many flashpoints in the turbulent relationship between Iran and the "little Satan" in more recent times.

They include Tehran's identification of Britain with US support for Iraq during its war with Iran in the Eighties, the break in diplomatic relations in 1989 over Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwah against Salman Rushdie, the five-year sentence of Briton Roger Cooper on spying charges which he persuasively denies; and two years ago, the stand-off triggered by Iran's seizure of 15...