Ecuador Willing To Discuss Julian Assange Case With Britain, President Says

Ecuador Willing To Discuss Assange Case If UK Drops 'Threat'

Ecuador's president Rafael Correa has said his country is willing to discuss the case of Julian Assange with Britain, but only if the UK retracts its "threat" to enter the London embassy.

"We don't expect an apology, but of course we expect Britain to retract the extremely serious mistake they made when they issued the threat that they could violate our diplomatic mission to arrest Julian Assange."

"Despite that rude, impertinent and unacceptable remark we're still open to dialogue," he said.

Ecuador's president Rafael Correa says he is willing to discuss Assange with Britain

His comments come after Ecuador claimed the UK government had threatened to storm the London embassy to arrest the WikiLeaks founder, who faces accusations of sex crimes and rape in Sweden.

According to The Guardian, Correa also suggested Julian Assange's alleged crimes would not be a "felony" in his country.

"I don't want to judge allegations that have not been proven and would not, in any case, be considered a felony in Latin American, too," the paper reported him saying.

On Tuesday, speaking for the first time since his country offered refuge to Assange, who has been living in the embassy for two months, Correa said if police entered the building it would open up Britain's embassies to threats around the world.

Assange's mother has said Britain's treatment of the 41-year-old Australian has "exposed the UK as a puppet state of the US."

Ecuador's foreign minister Ricardo Patino warned entering the embassy would require a response with "greater diplomatic force." Patino said it would "be interpreted by Ecuador as a hostile and intolerable act and also as an attack on our sovereignty."

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