Ecuador leader says embassy entry would be suicide for UK

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UK would be committing diplomatic suicide if it tried to enter his country's embassy in London, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has said, according to BBC News.

The president said such a move would open up the UK to having its diplomatic missions around the world entered.

Correa was speaking to state television about the continuing dispute over Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been in the embassy since June and been granted asylum by Ecuador as he fights extradition.

The UK says it is obliged to extradite Assange to Sweden, where he faces questioning over sex assault claims, which he denies, and he will be arrested if he leaves the embassy.

The interview with Correa opened with a short report from inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London. It showed Assange hugging his lawyer, the former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, just minutes before he addressed crowds of his supporters from the embassy's balcony.

Correa was then asked if he thought there was now no possibility the UK authorities would enter the embassy premises to arrest Assange, as they had previously indicated they might in a letter to Ecuadorean officials.

Correa said: "While the United Kingdom hasn't retracted nor apologized, the danger still exists." He said such a course of action would be "suicide for Great Britain because then people could enter their diplomatic premises all around the world and they wouldn't be able to say a thing".

There was very little said on what the next diplomatic step might be regarding removing Assange from the embassy. But Correa said, if needed, he was prepared to take the issue to the United Nations.