The Christian Science Monitor.
Britain said on Sunday it remained committed to reaching a diplomatic solution to the presence of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Ecuador's London embassy, after both countries took steps to defuse a row over his action in taking refuge there.
Assange has been living in the embassy's cramped quarters for more than two months since fleeing there to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations.
The
Latin American state's leader said on Saturday that Britain had
withdrawn a threat to enter the embassy to arrest Assange, to whom
Ecuador has granted asylum, and that he now considered the "unfortunate
incident" was over.
President Rafael Correa
was responding to a British assurance that it was not threatening the
embassy and that Britain was committed to the Vienna Convention, which
protects the inviolability of diplomatic premises.
"We remain
committed to the process of dialogue we have entered into and we want
that to resume with the government of Ecuador," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
Britain
provoked a furious reaction after telling Ecuador that an obscure
British law allowed it, under extreme circumstances, to remove the
embassy's diplomatic status, exposing Assange to immediate arrest by
police.
