The ruling regime in Iran are likely to have supported an attack on the UK's embassy in Tehran, the British ambassador to the country has said.
Dominick Chilcott told the BBC Iran was a country in which such action was taken only "with the acquiescence and the support of the state".
Hundreds of protesters attacked the UK embassy in Tehran on Tuesday.
Diplomats working at the Iranian embassy in London left Britain on Friday afternoon after being expelled.
The Iranian diplomats flew out of Heathrow on a chartered Iran Air flight and Iran's official news agency is reporting that they are now back in Tehran.
Their expulsion was ordered by Foreign Secretary William Hague after the British embassy in Tehran was stormed on Tuesday.
Iran said it regretted the incident, which it described as "unacceptable behaviour by a small number of protesters".
But Mr Chilcott, the newly appointed British ambassador to Iran, told the BBC's Gavin Esler the attack was likely to have had state backing.
He said: "Iran is not the sort of country where spontaneously a demonstration congregates and then attacks a foreign embassy. That sort of activity is only done with the acquiescence and the support of the state.
"And there are a number of reasons why, with the benefit of hindsight, it's very clear that this was a state-supported activity."
He also said some within Iran's ruling regime may have underestimated the British response.
"The risk is that certain people in the regime who liked the idea of confrontation, because they felt it would rally people to the flag, miscalculated how strong the response would be," said Mr Chilcott.
"They probably didn't expect us to send home the Iranian embassy in London and, reading between the lines, you can see in the way they have responded to that move, some remorse in having provoked it. I think that might apply more generally too," he added.
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