This week the UK refused Ecuador’s request the former Australian be given diplomatic status.
“The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter. Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice,” the Foreign Office said.
Quito said the country was seeking mediation to resolve the impasse - while Mr Assange posted a picture of himself on Twitter wearing an Ecuadorian football shirt on Wednesday.
Ecuador’s foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, said on Thursday Mr Assange will not leave the embassy without “security guarantees”, and that she feared there were threats to his life from “third party states”.
Mr Assange was granted citizenship on 12 December, she added at a press conference in Quito.
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