Iranian president may visit London for 2012 Olympics: report

Tehran, May 17 (Xinhua-ANI): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that he may visit London for 2012 Olympics.

Ahmadinejad said that he likes to be with Iranian athletes in London 2012 Olympic games to encourage them, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

"I like to be by the side of young Iranian athletes in 2012 Olympics, but they (host country) have problems with this issue," IRNA reported him as saying without elaboration.

In November 2011, two compounds of the British embassy in Tehran were stormed by Iranian protesters. The storming of the British embassy followed the Iranian high legislative body Guardian Council's approval of a parliamentary bill expelling the British ambassador as a result of the 2011 joint American-British- Canadian sanctions on the Islamic republic.

A British flag was taken down and replaced by the Iranian flag by the protesters and the British government later recalled its embassy staff from Iran and closed its embassy in the Islamic republic.

On Nov. 30, 2011, British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that all Iranian diplomats had been expelled and were given 48 hours to leave Britain.(Xinhua-ANI)