TEHRAN: Iran expelled two British diplomats yesterday after bitterly accusing Britain of meddling and spying. The government also dealt a fresh blow to the opposition by making clear it will not hold a new vote despite charges of fraud. US President Barack Obama declared the United States and the entire world being “appalled and outraged” by Iran’s violent efforts to crush dissent.

Iranian state TV showed students protesting outside the British Embassy in Tehran. The students burned US, British and Israeli flags, pelted the building with tomatoes and chanted: “Down with Britain!” and “Down with USA!”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it expelled the two Britons for “unconventional behavior” and Britain announced it was sending two Iranian diplomats home in retaliation.

Iran’s expulsions came a day after Britain called home 12 dependents of diplomatic staff because the unrest had disrupted their lives.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi claims he was the true winner of the June 12 election, but the electoral commission declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by a landslide. Mousavi has been out of sight in recent days and there were no reports of violent clashes yesterday, possibly a measure of the effectiveness of the crackdown.

However, protesters came up with new techniques, such as turning on the lights in their cars at certain hours of the day and honking their horns or holding up posters. In Tehran the night belongs to protesters. Starting at about 9:30 p.m., a few voices give the call of “Allah-o-Akbar”. As others join in, the cries swell to a wall of sound drowning out traffic noise and clearly audible inside homes.

A message posted on Mousavi’s website asserted that “all the reports of violations in the elections will be published soon.” Another opposition figure, reformist presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi, called for a day of mourning for the at least 17 people killed in protests since the election.

Iranian television said supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accepted a request by the Guardian Council to extend the deadline by five days for receiving and looking into election complaints. The council earlier made the request in a letter to Khamenei. The initial deadline was set for today.

The council insisted, however, that the vote would stand. “We witnessed no major fraud or breach,” spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai said on Press TV. “Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place.”

At a press conference at the White House, Obama condemned the “threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days.” Obama noted the killing of a young woman, Neda Agha Soltani, whose apparent shooting death was captured on video and circulated worldwide.

“We have seen courageous women stand up to brutality and threats, and we have experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets,” Obama said. “While this loss is raw and painful, we also know this: Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.”