UK denies plans to close embassies
IRNA
London, Nov 22, IRNA -- The Foreign Office Saturday denied plans to follow the US in closing dozens of British embassies around the world in response to security concerns following the targeting of UK targets in Istanbul. Reports suggested that up to 50 of Britain`s 233 missions in other countries could be closed down, following Thursday`s twin bombing of UK targets in Turkey, including the British Consulate in Istanbul. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office was quoted by the BBC confirming that a review of embassies was underway but was not in response to the attacks and that there were no planned closures at this stage. The Times Saturday reported that within two hours of the Istanbul bombings, all British embassies, high commissions and consulates received a Foreign Office telegram ordering an urgent review of security arrangements. "Security issues are under constant review. But there are no plans to close embassies as a response to Istanbul," the Foreign Office spokeswoman was quoted saying. According to the Daily Telegraph, defences have already started to be strengthened at British embassies around the world, including Berlin, Athens and Paris, where barriers were erected and roads closed. The opposition Conservative Party Saturday complained that the British Government is not doing enough to protect UK interests at home and abroad from terror attacks. The Foreign Office should have moved the British consulate in Istanbul to a less vulnerable position, the party`s homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer said. He said that the Americans were taking terrorism warnings far more seriously, and major targets in Britain were not being given the same protection as the US embassy in London. "So much more could be done. Why wasn`t our consulate in Istanbul shifted? It was attacked earlier on in the year, the same time as the American consulate was attacked," he told BBC radio. HC/212 End
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