LONDON – Britain is seeking an amicable solution with Ecuador to their diplomatic standoff over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a U.K. official insisted Saturday, as the secret-spiller prepared to make his first public statement since the Latin American nation confirmed it would offer him asylum.

Assange, who took shelter in the Ecuadorian Embassy on June 19 after he exhausted all routes of appeal in the U.K. to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sexual misconduct allegations, is scheduled to make a public statement Sunday.

London diplomats have spoken with Ecuadorian Ambassador Ana Alban since the South American country granted Assange asylum Thursday, a move that threatens to further complicate Sweden’s two-year long attempt to have the activist extradited from Britain.

British officials in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, have also contacted the country’s foreign ministry to discuss a resumption of talks over the case, and to quell anger prompted when Britain appeared to suggest it could invoke a little-known law to strip Ecuador’s embassy of diplomatic privileges — meaning police would be free to move in and detain Assange.

But there was little sign of a friendlier atmosphere Saturday from Quito, where Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said on his weekly broadcast that Britain’s “direct threat” about possibly entering the embassy had come “in a totally offensive . . . manner.”

He said Ecuador “never wanted to impede the investigation of a supposed crime. What we wanted to impede is the extradition to a third country.”

Correa complained again that Britain and Sweden had declined to give assurances against such an extradition.

British diplomats have repeated assurances that the government was simply setting out the country’s legal options, not making a specific threat to storm the nation’s mission — a small apartment in London’s ritzy Knightsbridge district, close to the famed Harrods department store.

Britain had held seven rounds of formal talks with Ecuador over the stalemate before Thursday’s decision. But Foreign Secretary William Hague insists Britain has no option but to meet the obligations of a European arrest warrant and send Assange to Stockholm.

Former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who is representing Assange, said Ecuador may consider making an appeal to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Assange, an Australian, shot to international prominence in 2010 when his WikiLeaks website began publishing a huge trove of American diplomatic and military secrets.

 

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