Re: How long does Ecuador's London embassy lease have left?
@Steve Davies 3 - "The embassy is part of the state of Ecuador."
That is entirely untrue although a very common misconception.
"The saga of the Iranian Embassy some 30 years ago...set the precident here."
Yes, it so set a precendence that the UK passed the 'Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987'. In fact the UK Government rather poorly pointed out to the Ecuadorian government that this law "would allow us [The UK Gov] to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the embassy."
The unwritten reason that embassies are generally protected, is that if Country A messes around with the embassy of Country B, then all of Country A's people in all of its embassies around the world are vunerable. I wouldn't want to be a Brit in the UK embassy in Quito (or anywhere in South America) if the Ecuadorian embassy in London had just been stormed by the Met.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
